SPRINGBROOK - Water use in the community is back to normal this week after residents in Springbrook were without water for an entire day when a fire broke out at the water treatment facility in the early hours of last Wednesday morning.
A boil water advisory instated April 19 has now been lifted.
Red Deer County fire crews arrived on the scene of the fire shortly after 5 a.m. on April 19.
Tom Metzger, district fire chief with Red Deer County Fire Services, said all trucks responded to the structure fire, which is now under investigation.
"On any structure fire we respond all station, (that's) five trucks with about 35 personnel. We were on scene until about 11 o'clock Wednesday morning," said Metzger, noting most crews were released by 7 a.m. "We kept a crew of eight plus one truck on scene to wrap up and clean up some hot spots."
Metzger confirmed there were no injuries but could not comment on the cause of the fire or damage to the building.
In order for crews to fight the fire, the water treatment facility had to be shut down. That left Springbrook residents without water for an entire day.
Paul Pettypiece, a local resident, said while he wasn't too inconvenienced by the water outage and subsequent boil water advisory, there were several residents and families who did have their day disrupted.
"The water was turned back on in stages roughly between 5 and 6 p.m. (April 19)," said Pettypiece. "The community was out of water all day long."
He said he believes many residents went into Red Deer or to the local store to purchase bottled water for the day, but for many the inconvenience came first thing in the morning and later in the afternoon.
"For a lot of people the big impact was in the morning because they couldn't shower or didn't have water to brush their teeth and wash to go to work," he said. "That was the big impact in the morning and during the day it was the toilets.
"Bottled water is (available to drink) but the big issue was not being able to flush the toilet, especially for families with kids."
Pettypiece has been a Springbrook resident for more than 20 years and doesn't recall a similar situation.
"I've been here for over 20 years and I can't remember being without water for so long," he said, noting the 12 hours without water. "There have been periods where it might be a couple of hours or so without water."
Officials with Red Deer County said they appreciated the patience of Springbrook residents during the situation.
"It was certainly not an anticipated event on our part," said Tyler Harke, corporate communications manager with Red Deer County. "We certainly appreciate the patience of Springbrook residents. We know it's a major inconvenience when you don't have water," he added.
"Red Deer County certainly did everything it could to work with EPCOR and Alberta Health Services to get water back and restored to Springbrook as quickly as possible," Harke concluded.
Paul Pettypiece, Springbrook resident
"For a lot of people the big impact was in the morning because they couldn't shower or didn't have water to brush their teeth and wash to go to work."
