ESTEVAN - The Estevan Fire Rescue Service responded to numerous calls including alarms, electrical arcing, entrapment and incidents over the past seven days.
On May 20 at about 2 p.m., Estevan fire crews were called to a report of an elevator entrapment. They arrived at a hotel in southeast Estevan to rescue a hockey team participating in the Centennial Cup, which got trapped in an elevator car. Firefighters isolated power and brought the car down to the main level to free people inside.
There were no injuries as a result of the incident.
The next call for service for the EFRS came on May 22 at about 9:30 p.m. A vehicle hit a deer on Highway 47 North. Upon arrival, firefighters could only find a dead animal, and the vehicle had left the scene. There was no threat to other drivers, so crews returned to the station.
On May 23, a vehicle hit a streetlight at the intersection of Souris Avenue North and Edward Street. EPS and EMS were also working at the location. EMS treated and transported an individual to the hospital for further assessment. Firefighters established traffic control, mitigated fluid leaks and isolated the vehicle.
The same day at about 1:30 p.m., crews responded to a carbon monoxide alarm. Upon arrival, it was found that exhaust from a vehicle that was running in a garage triggered the alarm.
“Just a gentle reminder there, you want to limit the amount of time that a vehicle is running inside a garage, especially in an attached garage as the exhaust will migrate into the home and possibly cause an issue,” said Estevan Fire Chief Dale Feser.
In this case, a working CO alarm picked up the dangerous gas coming into living quarters and alerted the homeowners in time to prevent any tragedy.
Firefighters ventilated the building and then turned it over to the owner.
On May 25, fire crews were called to an electrical arching hazard located in a transformer at the Affinity Place property.
“This was part of the issue with the power outage during that evening. Crews arrived on scene and found that it was no longer arcing, however still posing a danger to the public. We set up a perimeter control to ensure that nobody's going to enter the area. SaskPower crews arrived on scene and mitigated the situation and eventually repaired what was the cause of the electrical outage,” Feser said.
Power was knocked out to much of north Estevan. The power was out at Affinity Place for about 25 minutes during the game between the Estevan Bruins and the Brooks Bandits. Power was eventually restored elsewhere in Estevan, although the Estevan Leisure Centre was without power until Thursday afternoon.
At the same time, another call for service came in from the northeast area of the city, where another CO alarm was activated. Crews attended to find that the device was malfunctioning.
A fire alarm went off in the morning on May 26 in a residence in Estevan. A contractor was working in the building and didn’t inform the monitoring agency. There was no emergency, so firefighters left the location with a reminder to always let the monitoring agency know if any work is to be done on site.
