The Estevan Fire Rescue Service (EFRS) had several busy days last week which culminated with a field fire Sunday.
The call about the wildland fire came in at about 2 p.m. The fire occurred to the northeast of Estevan. Crews arrived on scene to find what Estevan Fire Chief Dale Feser called a “medium-size field fire” occurring in the recently swathed area.
“Thanks a lot to the farming community who landed a hand,” said Feser.
It took about four hours to bring the fire under control. No farm equipment or buildings were lost to the fire, and no injuries occurred as a result. It seemed that a rock caught in the combine header sparked the fire.
“It’s extremely dry out there. We ask the farming and ranching community if you are bailing or swathing, or harvesting your crops, exercise extreme caution,” said Feser. “We are in extreme fire danger indexing.”
Feser added that if we don’t get any moisture at the beginning of this week, they might be issuing fire bans for the area. It wouldn’t affect the farmers, who are just asked to be really careful and call 911 immediately if a fire is occurring.
Earlier that day, a fire alarm went off in a large commercial occupancy along Highway 39 west.
“When crews arrived on scene, it was found that there were some electrical issues … (Occupants) isolated a section and fixed it. And when they turned the breaker back on that morning it trigged the alarm,” explained Feser.
There was no emergency occurring. The scene was deemed safe and firefighters returned to the station.
Earlier last week, on Tuesday at about 1:30 p.m., crews were called to the report of a natural gas leak in one of the Estevan motels in the northeast part of town. Upon arrival, firefighters found that all residents were accounted for and securely gathered on the first level.
“We came into the building and found a substantial leak occurring in the third-floor loft attic space area,” said Feser.
SaskEnergy attended the scene and confirmed that the natural gas leak was occurring from a boiler unit. Firefighters isolated the valve to the boiler, allowed the occupancy to naturally ventilate, and then qualified technicians were called over to fix the issue.
Feser pointed out that in any situation when management assumes there might be a gas leak, they should call 911 right away, so specialists could find the source and neutralize it before it becomes a more serious issue.
Another call came in on Wednesday at about 11 p.m. It was reported that a tree came in contact with power lines and a fire occurred in the west part of Estevan in a trailer park. The EFRS members extinguished the fire without any issues and turned the scene over to SaskPower specialists who also attended the scene and assisted with the incident.
