After a relatively long quiet streak, the fire department received a surge of calls on March 22. The first call for service came in at about 11 a.m. from the central part of Estevan, where an electrical motor caught on fire at a business.
"Crews did respond non-emergent as it was reported that the fire did extinguish at that time," Feser said.
"When we did arrive on scene it was found that an electrical motor for conveyor belt system had overheated and suffered a mechanical failure. So crews were able to ensure that there was no additional fires or emergencies that would occur, isolated power to this particular item and turned the scene back over to the management and staff there in order to contact an electrician for repair."
The next call came in at around 3 p.m., when crews were called out to a residential fire alarm that went off in the south-central area of the city. There were no visible signs of fire on the exterior of the building. The homeowner met firefighters at the door and explained that it was a cooking-related incident. There was not enough smoke to warrant any ventilation efforts on behalf of the fire service. The rest of the trucks were stood down, and the homeowner was reminded that if a residential fire alarm goes off, the homeowner should be the first point of contact prior to dispatching the EFRS crews.
Just as firefighters returned to the station, they were called out to a shop fire occurring just outside of the city limits to the west.
"Crews did arrive on scene to find the flames licking up the back of the large shop occupancy approximately 30 feet in the air," Feser said.
The fire started on the outside and was making its way into the shop. Once the exterior fire was brought under control, the second crew was assigned interior structural attack firefighting duties. They entered the building as the fire had progressed inside and started some of the contents on fire.
"Crews were able to bring that quickly under control and stop loss of property on that particular occupancy," Feser said.
Crews spent about two hours on scene. There were no injuries as a result of the fire. The operation was efficient and successful, thanks to the joint effort of first responders.
"We want to extend a thank you to our emergency services partners, the Estevan Police Service for providing traffic control and assistance on scene, as well as to the EMS as they had a crew out there on standby in case anybody should have suffered any injuries whether it be the homeowners or the firefighters," Feser said.
The subsequent investigation looked into the causes of the fire.
"It was found that the homeowner was burning some refuse materials on the property, when a sudden change in the wind had displaced some ambers from the original burn site and put them into some unwanted vegetation and burnt it right up to the shop. There was also a lot of stored wood which is used for fireplaces right against the shop itself," said Feser, adding that it's never a good idea to store flammable materials close to buildings.
Damage to the property was kept to a minimum. The homeowner lost a garden shed, a lot of firewood and a few antique car parts, but most of the property was saved.
Crews returned to the station for a quick break before a report of smoke in a building saw them driving out to a restaurant in central Estevan. Upon arrival, crews found that a roofing company was doing some repairs and tarring the roof.
"They were still on site doing some fire control when an off-duty firefighter and patrons were able to smell some smoke and observe a burning car smell inside the occupancy itself. So the restaurant was quickly evacuated and everybody was encountered."
Roofing crews immediately found a small fire that just started. They were able to quickly extinguish it prior to firefighters' arrival.
"We did remain on scene for approximately an hour just to ensure complete extinguishment and that there was no other fires that were occurring. Once the scene is deemed safe, it was turned back over to the restaurant staff and the roofing crew. The roofing crew remained on site for a few hours afterwards just to do fire watch to ensure no other issues would come up," Feser said.
Most members of the EFRS were involved with the calls on Monday, and Feser was grateful to the employers for allowing volunteer firefighters to be there.
"A huge thank you to all the employers that allow our paid-on-call firefighters to attend to these types of scenarios and emergencies that are occurring because obviously there's a loss of production at the workplace where these individuals work as well. So we can't say thank you enough to the local businesses that support the city of Estevan by allowing the firefighters to attend these emergency calls."
