CARSTAIRS - It was a busy week for the Carstairs Fire Department as well as other departments in the area as they responded to five separate structure fires recently.
Jordan Schaffer, Carstairs' fire chief, said that all five fires are still under investigation but the cause is likely heating devices.
"Heating devices are definitely a concern on a few of them," said Schaffer. "Space heaters and furnaces are a cause for some of them but they all haven't been investigated yet.”
The fires reported included one in Cremona, one near Water Valley, and three others in the rural area near Carstairs. None are seen as suspicious, he said.
Jules Rainforth, owner of Rein Forth Equine, is counting her blessings after a fire destroyed the barn at her place, which is a couple of kilometres outside of Carstairs. Rainforth was glad that no people or horses were injured and that the fire didn't spread past the barn.
The fire took place on the afternoon of Jan. 19. Fire crews from Carstairs, Didsbury, Olds and Crossfield attended. Sadly, two bunnies did perish.
Rainforth was out of town during the fire.
"I got a call from a neighbour who saw the fire from their house," said Rainforth. "I called my friend at the house and he went out and let the horses out. I'm just grateful, it could've been so much worse. The barn is only about 30 metres from our house."
Rainforth said she has been working with the insurance company.
"They've already been out and had a look," she said. "We're going to have to replace the barn. We also lost most of our equipment such as saddles and tack for the horses."
Despite the hardship, Rainforth is grateful to the firefighters for their response as well as the community.
"I'm so grateful to the community and the outpouring of support that has come in," she said.
Rainforth expects that the business will continue to run although they'll have to do some rearranging of appointments with the loss of the barn and equipment.
"I'm hoping we'll be up and running soon," she said. "We'll just roll with it."
The week of the cold snap was also marred by a power outage in Didsbury.
Pretty much the entire town of Didsbury was without power on the evening of Jan. 16. FortisAlberta reported that the outage started at 5:33 p.m. and was caused by a failed terminator at the substation.
Alana Antonelli, manager of communications for FortisAlberta, said the failed terminator was likely due to the extreme cold weather.
In total, 2,564 customers were affected.
"All power was restored by 6:45 p.m.," said Antonelli. "We thank people for their patience in this cold weather."
