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Bed catches fire in Melfort

MELFORT — There were no injuries as a bed caught fire in a home on Burns Avenue East in Melfort. Melfort Fire and Rescue responded to the call on Jan. 14.
Fire hall
File photo

MELFORT — There were no injuries as a bed caught fire in a home on Burns Avenue East in Melfort.

Melfort Fire and Rescue responded to the call on Jan. 14.

Upon arrival, the crews located the mattress, extinguished the fire and removed it from the building.

“We do know the cause and we’re still handling it right now,” said Shaun Stewart, Melfort’s fire chief.

As crews then proceeded to ventilate the building, they discovered an air handling unit that was smoking and blowing the smoke into the building.

“They had to shut down the air handling unit to handle the one that was going on, so it wasn’t putting smoke back through the building,” Stewart said. “I don’t think it was dysfunctional, it was a matter of shutting it down when it was 30 below and trying to start it back up again.”

The building’s maintenance personnel shut down the unit without issue.

Stewart said bed fires aren’t too common due to mattresses being made out of mostly fire resistant materials. At the same time, while they may be fire resistant, they’re not fire proof – with this call serving as an example.

“Just be cognizant of what you take into bed with you.”