Cold Lake Fire-Rescue respond to 43 fire calls in August

During the month of August there were 43 fire calls that Cold Lake Fire-Rescue (CLFR) responded to.

Jeff Fallow is the Cold Lake Fire Chief.

“CLFR responded to one structure fire in the City of Cold Lake,” Chief Fallow said. “Fire crews arrived to find a storage shed fully involved. Fire crews were able to bring the fire under control quickly but unfortunately the shed was a total loss. The adjacent mobile homes
to the shed also suffered some exterior heat damage.”

Chief Fallow says fire crews ensured the fire was completely extinguished with no hot spots. The fire was deemed suspicious.

During the month of August, CLFR responded to four vehicle fires in the M.D. of Bonnyville.

“Three were suspicious fires and one was a hay baler fire and deemed non-suspicious,” Chief Fallow said. “Fire crews extinguished all fires and ensured there were no hot spots.”

The Chief says the vehicles were total losses.

CLFR also responded to six motor vehicle collisions during the month with one requiring extrication, and all requiring varying degrees of scene safety, traffic control, patient care, packaging and removal.

“Two were T-bone collisions, one was a single vehicle rollover collision, one was a head-on collision, one was a vehicle versus deer, and one was a motorcycle incident,” Chief Fallow said. “Of the 14 alarm calls CLFR attended, all were deemed to be false alarms. 12 of the alarms were residential fire alarms and two were commercial/institutional fire alarms.”

The fire alarms which were activated included: five from cooking smoke, two due to faulty detectors, two attributed to a low battery, one from water leaking into detector, one from cigarette smoke, one due to changing batteries, one due to system maintenance and one with nothing found, Chief Fallow added.

CLFR responded to four wildland fires which were grass/brush fires in August.

“One was due to a blown fuse on a power pole and the other three were suspicious,” Chief Fallow said. “CLFR responded to one contents fire which was a flash fire caused during work being done on a water tank.”

The sprinkler system extinguished the fire with the room sustaining minimal fire damage and some water damage, Chief Fallow added.

CLFR responded to 13 agency/public assistance calls. Six calls were to assist Cold Lake Ambulance which included four lift assists of which two were in cardiac arrest, one to assist with gaining entry to a patient and one to help with newborn triplets where two of the babies were having breathing issues.

“Three calls were public assistance good intent calls for smoke and odor investigations with nothing found,” Chief Fallow said.

Finally, CLFR responded to four water rescue calls for stranded boaters on Cold Lake.

During the month of August, CLFR responded 25 times within City limits and 18 times in the M.D. of Bonnyville. Evening response were the highest response times at 51.16 per cent followed by daytime response at 25.58 per cent, with overnight response being at 23.26 per cent.

Arthur@lakelandconnect.thedev.ca