The Lac La Biche County’ regional fire crews were hot on the job during the cold snap that fell over the area last week, and they're hoping for a cool down in activity as the temperatures are expected to rise.
Last week's cold weather week started by sending area fire crews west of Hylo to a rural property near Highway 855 where a two-storey home was completely destroyed by fire. The Monday, January 13 fire was reported by a passing motorist at approximately 7:30 that night.
When fire crews arrived, the home was completely engulfed, and Lac La Biche County’s regional fire chief John Kokotilo suspects the fire had been burning for some time. No one was home at the time of the blaze.
“The structure was completely burned down,” Kokotilo told the POST. There’s speculation was that the fire had been burning for some time prior to the Fire Department being called.”
The fire chief says the family who lived in the house have managed to find another place to stay.
The cause of the fire has yet to be determined. Lac La Biche RCMP say the fire’s origin appears to be non-suspicious at this time.
The cold weather didn’t slow down the fire calls for the rest of week either — and in fact, says Kokotilo, it was the reason for several of the calls.
Fire crews were called out to the Portage Pool last Thursday night at 7:30 on reports of an alarm from the facility’s mechanical room. The fire chief says the likely cause was over-worked mechanical equipment, “possibly due to the cold.”
While the alarms were activated due to smoke, Kokotilo said there was no sign of flames.
The pool remained closed last Friday as staff and maintenance crews fixed the issue. The facility was back open on Saturday.
Kokotilo says the winter chill can easily spark a fire call.
“Machinery, equipment, heating appliances, electrical equipment all work harder during the winter months,” he told the POST, “and even more so during the frigid days at -25 (and colder). This can cause electrical circuit overloading, or heating appliances burning out bearings or belts.”
Frozen wheel parts are believed to have been at least part of the cause for a collision on Highway 55 last Tuesday morning, the first of three fire calls on the day. With overnight temperatures dropping below -40C, the wheels of a tanker container being pulled by a semi-truck may have been locked and slowed down a turning truck, putting it into the path of another semi. The collision didn’t result in serious injuries, but did cause traffic issues just west of the Lac La Biche hamlet for much of the morning.
Call after call
Area firefighters were also called out on reports of a wildland fire near Hylo last Tuesday afternoon — while they were on the scene of a truck fire on the bypass road later on Tuesday afternoon. The Hylo call ended up being a controlled burn of brush piles.
“Due to the weather, caused a lot of smoke — cold weather inversion — and was called in by a passerby.” Kokotilo explained, adding that the idea of a wildland fire in the middle of arctic-like conditions may sound strange ... but it’s not.
“Any fire can start – does not matter what the temperature – as long as you have the fuel, the oxygen and the ignition source,” he said. “It’s just a little easier to start in warmer temperatures.”
