ESTEVAN — Estevan Fire Rescue Service members responded to eight calls last week, six of which came in just over 24 hours.
The busy stretch, which didn't seem to have anything to do with the weather, started on Jan. 8 when at about 8:30 a.m., the EFRS were called to a single-vehicle incident that occurred about 11 kilometres west of Estevan. A vehicle struck a deer. The driver didn't report injuries and there was minor damage to the vehicle, so the fire crews' assistance wasn't required, as RCMP and a towing company were already working with the motorist.
The next day at about 4 p.m., firefighters were dispatched to a two-vehicle collision by Walmart. Crews responded and assisted the Estevan Police Service with clearing the scene.
Jan. 12 started with a call at 8 a.m. A residential fire alarm went off in the northwest area of the city. The incident command responded, investigated and determined that there was no emergency occurring and the fire detector seemed to be faulty.
The next call for service came in at about 1 p.m., when crews were dispatched to a residential carbon monoxide (CO) alarm in the northwest corner.
"Incident command responded and investigated, and did detect low levels of carbon monoxide. So SaskEnergy was called to the scene to further investigate and assist the homeowner in resolving that issue," said Estevan Fire Chief Rick Davies.
Two hours later, firefighters were dispatched to a commercial fire alarm on the south side of Estevan. They quickly determined that there was no emergency occurring and the alarm was due to an issue with the heating appliance.
Later that night, the EFRS was called to another commercial fire alarm in the north-central area. The investigation proved the alarm was triggered by CO, not fire, as low levels of CO were detected in the building. The building management contacted contractors to come in and resolve the issue.
The busy stretch continued on Jan. 13 with the first call for service coming in at just after 6 a.m. Firefighters were dispatched to a residential CO alarm on the north side of Estevan. The investigation didn't find any CO readings or other issues. The detector device was determined to be the problem, and the homeowner was going to check into getting it repaired.
At about 10:30 a.m., crews were dispatched to a residential fire alarm that went off in northeast Estevan.
"Crews responded and investigated; no issues were found with fire or carbon monoxide. Again, it was believed to be a detector issue, so the homeowner was going to check into repairing that," Davies said.
