The Estevan fire department responded to a mutual aid call regarding a serious field/wildland fire early this week.
The emergency occurred on Monday at about 2 p.m. The Estevan Fire Rescue Service (EFRS) crews were called to a field/wildland fire that was spreading fast north of the city a few kilometres by 361 Highway.
"Crews arrived on scene to find a fairly large field fire occurring with four farms that were being threatened as a result of the fire," said Estevan Fire Chief Dale Feser.
Due to the scale of the fire and high-wind conditions, three fire departments including Lampman Volunteer Fire Department, Stoughton-Tecumseh Fire Department and the EFRS had to join their efforts. Local farmers also stepped forward to help to put fireguards in.
The fire consumed approximately 620 acres of land. Fortunately, firefighters saved all houses; however, one building was lost.
"There was a … garage that was fairly close to the house that suffered a total loss. However, there were no vehicles involved. And for the fire of this size, it's always great when you have no injuries and no major losses," Feser said.
Feser praised the joint efforts of the three fire departments and also thanked the local farmers that came out to assist with fire suppression.
"Wind conditions were very high, upwards of 70 kilometres per hour gusting, so the fire was very fast-moving, but the crews were able to contain and get it under control."
The EFRS crews didn't get to the station until 8 p.m. that night.
The next day, a carbon monoxide (CO) alarm went off in a commercial building in the east-central part of Estevan. Crews responded. Upon their arrival, all employees had safely evacuated the building and nobody had suffered from CO exposure.
Right at the door, the firefighters' gas detection equipment picked up readings of 70 parts per million of CO.
"Quick thinking and actions of the worker who noticed that the carbon monoxide alarm was going off and active. He alerted and called 911 and got emergency crews there right away," Feser said.
Firefighters encountered a level of CO being as high as 90 parts per million in certain areas of the building.
SaskEnergy specialists were called in as well and assisted with their gas detection equipment, which confirmed the EFRS' readings.
"Investigation into the appliances found that there was an overhead radiant heater that the ... tube had separated and exhausted the gases inside the building itself," Feser said.
The building was further ventilated and then turned over to SaskEnergy and building owners for further investigation and repairs.
Tuesday night firefighters proceeded with their regular training, which again took place at the Derrick Motor Hotel.
"We spent quite a bit of time there running specialized training and drills," said Feser. "We were there from 7 o'clock until just about 11 o'clock that night to wrap up and finish a lot of the drills that we wanted to conduct."
The emergency calls so far have prevented the EFRS from further activities related to promoting cooking fire safety for Fire Prevention Week. However, the EFRS is posting some fire prevention tips on their Facebook page daily, which the public is encouraged to share to help raise awareness in the community.
