Estevan Fire Rescue Service (EFRS) crews were called out several times in the past few days.
Friday afternoon at about 5:30 p.m., firefighters were alerted to a commercial fire alarm. It went off in the central part of Estevan. There was no smoke or flame on the exterior of the multifamily, multi-storey condominium complex, and crews entered the building.
"Everybody did a great job evacuating to the muster points on the main floor," said Estevan Fire Chief Dale Feser.
It turned out that residents of one of the suites on the second floor were in the process of cooking, which got away on them. Fire crews did make their way up to the second floor to find that while there was enough smoke to trigger the fire alarm system, not enough was remaining in the area to work any ventilation. They allowed for a little more natural ventilation, reset the fire alarm panel and turned the building back over to the occupants.
"Cooking is the number one cause of home fires in North America. So you want to make sure that anytime you have something on a stove, you or somebody else is watching it," Feser reminded the public.
The next call for service came in on Sunday at about 4:30 p.m. The original report requested a smoke investigation in the backyard in the north-central area of the city. When crews arrived on scene it was found that there was a fire pit in operation in the backyard. However, the occupants and the homeowner were burning small leaves and twigs, creating a lot of smoke and embers migrating away from the fire pits.
"The homeowner was reminded that this is not permissible as per City of Estevan bylaw for the fire pits. Any refuse like this has to be disposed at the landfill because leaves do produce way too much smoke and the smaller branches produce too many embers and migrate away and can start other properties on fire," Feser explained.
After talking to the homeowner, crews returned to the station.
Monday morning at about 7:30 a.m., firefighters responded to a residential fire alarm that went off in north-central Estevan. Upon arrival, crews found that the homeowner was making breakfast and ended up having too much smoke in the room.
With not enough smoke remaining in the building, no ventilation efforts were warranted. Firefighters allowed the area to naturally ventilate and reminded the homeowner that they should be the first point of contact if the residential fire alarm goes off.
