SUNDRE — Although the local fire chief had initially anticipated a potentially hectic August long weekend as plenty of people headed out into the backcountry, he was pleased his prediction did not pan out.
“Seeing how many people that were out and about, it’s very nice that we didn’t have any serious calls out in the West Country there, because that was my thoughts, that we were going to be busy,” said Sundre Fire Department Chief Marty Butts.
“That was good, because there was a lot of people come through our community. I would say this has been maybe a busier weekend in the West Country than previous May long weekends.
“It was pretty crazy — there was a lot of people heading out with all terrain vehicles like quads and dirt bikes and campers and trailers and horses — there was a ton of people. I was expecting some calls into the backcountry there, but fortunately we didn’t have any of that.”
From Friday, July 31 to Monday Aug. 3, he said the fire department received roughly half a dozen calls for service, including a couple of medical calls.
There were also a couple of alarms, one of which was false while the other was a middle-of-the-night carbon monoxide alert in a commercial building that was vacant at the time, he said.
On the evening of Saturday, Aug. 1, an older male motorist suffered a medical complication that led the driver to collide with a planter on the Highway 27/Main Avenue corridor downtown.
“He was fairly stable when he was going into the ambulance,” said Butts, adding the driver, “just had a medical condition that made him crash. He wasn’t intoxicated or anything.”
The chief said that was the only motor vehicle collision responded to over the entire weekend.
And while there were no fires reported in the immediate vicinity, Butts said a local crew was dispatched to provide the Didsbury Fire Department with mutual aid on a structure fire that was caused by a lightning strike on Aug. 3 when a storm rolled through the region.Although he did not personally attend, Butts said the crew that responded with a fire truck was back at the hall within roughly a couple of hours.
