ESTEVAN — The Estevan Fire Rescue Service dealt with various fire alarms and other situations, including arcing power lines last week.
On Jan. 18 at 8:15 p.m., fire crews were dispatched to the southeast side of the city for a report of arcing powerlines. Crews responded and didn't find any major fire or damage, but there was arcing that was noted amongst transformers on a pole. So, firefighters stood by until SaskPower arrived and the scene was turned over to them to further investigate and repair.
Firefighters were also called to a report of a car fire occurring in the parking lot of a business in the central part of the city on Jan. 15 at about 11:40 a.m.
"Incident command responded and investigated. Thankfully, no fire was found to be occurring, and there were no signs of any damaged vehicles. Speaking to people in the vicinity, nobody had seen something. So incident command terminated the call and returned to the station. I'm not sure what that was all about, probably steaming from the cold," Estevan Fire Chief Rick Davies said in explaining the situation.
The same day at about 6:30 p.m., the EFRS was dispatched to a commercial fire alarm at a property on the west side of the city. Crews responded and found that the sprinkler system had been activated. Firefighters assisted property maintenance in shutting down and inspecting the system.
"We determined that the sprinklers were initiated due to a problem in the system and not due to a fire occurring," Davies noted. "So, the scene was turned over to property maintenance for them to further investigate and clean up."
Crews were dispatched to a residential carbon monoxide (CO) alarm on the north side of the city on Jan. 16 at about 9:45 p.m. The investigation determined that there was no CO in the building and the alarm was due to a faulty detector.
On Jan. 17 around 8:30 p.m., members were dispatched to a commercial fire alarm in the central part of the city. Investigation showed there was no emergency occurring, but faults were found with the alarm system. Firefighters reset the system and returned to the station.
Crews were dispatched back to that same building for a fire alarm on Jan. 18 at about 5 a.m. Firefighters responded, investigated and again confirmed there was no emergency occurring. The faulty alarm was to blame for triggering the system. The alarm was silenced and building management was advised to get a contractor and to inspect and repair the device.
