Cold Lake Fire Rescue respond to 33 calls in July

During the month of July there were 33 fire calls that Cold Lake Fire-Rescue (CLFR) responded to.

CLFR responded to one structure fire in the MD of Bonnyville. Fire crews arrived to find a detached garage fully involved. Fire crews were able to bring the fire under control quickly but unfortunately the garage was a total loss. The house adjacent to the garage also suffered some exterior heat damage.

Jeff Fallow is the Fire Chief for Cold Lake Fire Rescue.

“Fire crews ensured the fire was completely extinguished with no hot spots,” Chief Fallow said. “The fire was deemed non-suspicious.”

CLFR responded to one vehicle fire in the MD of Bonnyville which was an abandoned fully involved pickup truck. Chief Fallow says fire crews extinguished the fire and ensured there were no hot spots. The vehicle was a total loss and deemed suspicious.

CLFR also responded to three motor vehicle collisions (mvc) during the month with none requiring extrication, and all requiring varying degrees of scene safety, traffic control, patient care, packaging and removal.

“One was a rear-ender collision, one was a single vehicle rollover collision, and one was a quad incident,” Chief Fallow said.

Of the 11 alarm calls CLFR attended, all were deemed to be false alarms.

“Five of the alarms were residential fire alarms, five were commercial/institutional fire alarms and one was a CO alarm,” Chief Fallow said. “The fire alarms which were activated included: three where no cause was found, two due to accidental activation, one due to a pull station being pulled but no fire, one from cooking smoke, one from a heat detector in a hot boiler room, one due to system maintenance and one from a prisoner breaking the sprinkler head in cells.”

The lone CO alarm was investigated with CLFR equipment with no abnormal readings found and attributed to a low battery, Chief Fallow added.

CLFR responded to three wildland fires which were grass/brush fires during July.

“One was due to a blown fuse on a power pole and the other two were suspicious,” Chief Fallow said.

CLFR responded to nine agency/public assistance calls. Six calls were to assist Cold Lake Ambulance which included two lift assists, one to assist with gaining entry to a patient, one to help with a patient in cardiac arrest and two were for Code Red incidents where no ambulances were in the area.

“The first one was a person having chest pains who was able to be transported by RCMP and the second was for a patient with a severe
nosebleed and after assisting with patient care a family member took them to the hospital,” Chief Fallow said.

Three calls were public assistance good intent calls for smoke sightings with nothing found.

Finally, CLFR responded to five rescue calls which included four water rescues and one elevator rescue. Three water rescues were on Cold Lake, and one was on the Beaver River.

“The elevator rescue the trapped people were able to get out and CLFR was stood down,” Chief Fallow said. “During the month CLFR responded 19 times within City limits, 12 times in the MD of Bonnyville and two times into Saskatchewan. Daytime responses,16, were the highest response times at 48.48 per cent followed by evening response, 14, at 42.42 per cent, with overnight response, three, being at 9.10 per cent.”