The beginning of the last week saw Estevan firefighters attending two serious incidents in the Estevan area.
Early morning last Tuesday, the Estevan Fire Rescue Service was called out to a train versus truck collision, which occurred on the west side of the city.
"Crews arrived on scene to find that the vehicle has left the highway surface after the collision and was overturned in the ditch," said Estevan Fire Chief Dale Feser.
Firefighters secured the scene quickly and located the driver, who was the only occupant of the vehicle. Emergency Medical Services crews who were on the scene transported the man to St. Joseph's Hospital for treatment and assessment.
"Fire department crews remained on scene to ensure that the vehicle wasn't going to start on fire and to take care of minor leaks that were on scene, and also assisted with traffic control for the RCMP services until CP Rail Police could arrive on scene, and then we turned it over to them to investigate the cause of the collision," Feser said.
Crews then returned to the station and were back in service.
The next call came last Wednesday afternoon. At about 3:30 p.m. firefighters were called out to a shop fire, occurring in the RM of Estevan, northeast of the city by the airport road.
"Once crews did arrive on scene, they found that the structure was already entirely consumed by the fire that had occurred. So crews did put out the ground fires and the remaining fire to ensure that no other buildings would start on fire," Feser said.
Further investigation concluded that the fire was caused by an electrical issue.
Earlier last week, firefighters also responded to a residential fire alarm. The call came in at about 7:30 p.m. last Monday. The alarm went off in a residence in the northcentral part of Estevan.
Once on scene, crews found that occupants had been taking a hot shower, and some steam escaped the bathroom, setting off the alarm.
"There was no actual emergency occurring. Crews were able to clear the scene and return to the station with a gentle reminder to the homeowner to ensure that they are the first point of contact when it comes to fire alarm activation," Feser said.
On Saturday firefighters, along with the Estevan RCMP and Estevan Police Service participated in a toy drive for the Estevan Hamper Association's Angel Tree program.
"It's just astounding, the amount of the support that we have in our community. Not once, not twice, but three, possibly more times there were people that came with entire shopping carts overloaded with toys and donated the entire shopping carts," Feser said.
