NIPAWIN — Dave Balding, Nipawin’s fire chief, said he would like to encourage the community to contact the fire department proactively, before a situation grows larger and uncontrollable.
“Sometimes the public is a little reluctant to call, and I would encourage everyone to call 9-1-1 proactively,” Balding said. “We’d rather come to an event that’s small than something that becomes [a larger incident].”
An example Balding gave was a chimney fire, such as the one crews responded to on Dec. 4 in the community.
“That fire could have gone either way, and the homeowner was proactive in calling,” he said. “Folks here were trained in mitigating those circumstances, and at the end of the day it was a happy ending for everyone.”
For the month of December, the department responded to two motor vehicle collisions which took place on Dec. 2 and Dec. 16, the chimney fire on Dec. 4, and a number of alarm activated calls – including a report of a natural gas leak in town on Dec. 28.
Balding said the natural gas leak was mitigated successfully with SaskEnergy taking over the scene.
“We’re equipped with gas detectors and protocols to evacuate the premises,” Balding said. “One of the default protocols is to contact SaskEnergy who quickly responded and looked after the situation.”
