ESTEVAN — The Estevan Fire Rescue Service encountered a busy week with multiple calls for service and other duties.
On July 23 at about 8:30 a.m. they responded to a serious residential structure fire in the Trojan subdivision. A house and an adjacent building on Spruce Drive were significantly damaged by the flames. Estevan Fire Chief Rick Davies said it took fire crews about six hours to contain and extinguish this fire.
"We responded and confirmed a fully-evolved working fire. So, crews worked to bring that incident under control and extinguish the fire," Davies said. "The structure involved did suffer significant fire damage with minor damage to a neighbouring structure. There were no injuries that were reported. But one of our firefighters was assessed on scene by EMS due to a heat-related issue.
"Crews were on scene for about six hours. The cause of the fire is not believed to be suspicious at this time, but it is under investigation."
He noted that the firefighter experienced heat exhaustion but was fine afterwards.
The Estevan Police Service assisted the Estevan Fire Rescue on this call as well.
Earlier last week, on July 17 just before 8 a.m., firefighters responded to a commercial fire alarm in the northwest area of the city. The investigation determined it was false in nature, so the crews' assistance wasn't required.
On July 19 at about 8:30 a.m., they were also dispatched to a residential carbon monoxide alarm in the northwest area of the city. Davies said they did not find any CO readings in the residence, assuming it was an issue with the CO detector itself, so they confirmed that it was okay to return to the fire hall.
A commercial fire alarm went off in northeast Estevan on July 21. Firefighters responded and investigated, and it was quickly realized the alarm was caused by contractors performing work on site, so firefighters' assistance was not needed.
On July 22 and 23, fire crews were also on standby during the races at the Estevan Motor Speedway.