The Estevan Fire Rescue Service (EFRS) had a busy first half of the week.
Monday afternoon at about 3 p.m., crews were alerted to a vehicle and grass fires occurring northwest of Hitchcock. Once crews arrived on scene, it was found that the vehicle suffered a mechanical failure and caught on fire, also setting the vegetation around it on fire.
“There were no injuries as a result of the fire. Crews were able to get in and suppress both vegetation and vehicle fire,” said Estevan Fire Chief Dale Feser.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. While recent rains didn’t allow the grass fire to spread, the vehicle suffered significant damage and was a write-off.
The next call came in Tuesday night. At about 9 p.m., firefighters were called out to a collision in Bienfait, in which a vehicle hit a tree.
“Crews arrived on scene to indeed find that the vehicle was still there with two occupants and full airbag deployment,” said Feser.
EMS checked and released the occupants of the vehicle on scene. Firefighters isolated the vehicle and turned it over to the RCMP for further investigation.
While crews were on that call, another call came in. This time a commercial fire alarm went off in the north-central area of Estevan. Crews responded. While on scene, along with the property maintenance manager, they reviewed the fire alarm panel, which was indicating that the detection head was activated on the third floor.
Firefighters checked the area with thermal-imaging cameras, but outside of a very high humidity level in the building, no cause for the alarm was found.
“(High humidity) was troubling this particular detection head,” said Feser. “The scene was turned back over to the building maintenance manager with recommendations to get that fire alarm detection device fixed.”
On Tuesday night the EFRS also reintegrated into their regular training that was partially put on pause and partially being done online since March due to COVID-19.
