SUNDRE — There were a number of incidents keeping local firefighters busy over the Heritage Day long weekend, but fortunately no major emergencies unfolded.
“It wasn’t overly bad this year,” said Ross Clews, the Sundre Fire Department’s chief.
“We had six calls over the weekend,” Clews told The Albertan following the weekend during a phone interview.
Three of those incidents occurred on Friday, July 30, while the others were spread throughout the rest of the weekend, he said.
Among the calls the department responded to over the long weekend was an emergency medical service request for assistance in the area of Yaha Tinda Ranch, where a rider sustained undetermined injures after being thrown from a horse, he said, adding there was also another horse-related incident in the same general area later in the weekend.
A vehicle fire was also reported in the same area, he said.
“It was a truck pulling a horse trailer,” he said, adding no one was badly hurt when that blaze unexpectedly ignited during their drive to the ranch.
“It started in the engine compartment,” prompting the driver to immediately pull over and evacuate, he said.
“Everybody got out of that one,” the fire chief said, adding, “apparently, they got the animals out.”
A forestry firefighting crew had already arrived and was dousing the flames while the Sundre Fire Department’s members were en route. The fire was largely extinguished by the time they arrived on scene, so the Sundre team assisted with clean-up and putting out remaining hotspots, he said.
A male operator on a quad was also lucky to escape largely unscathed after his off-road vehicle rolled west of town along Highway 584.
“The patient was stable and OK,” said the chief, adding the crew that responded to that call met the patient as the ambulance was transporting him to Sundre.
Also lucky to emerge pretty well unscathed from a close call in the Yaha Tinda area were a couple of people who were out in the back country on a horse-drawn wagon that ended up rolling over as they were attempting to cross the Red Deer River.
Although Clews did not personally respond and could not comment on specific details about the incident, the chief said based on a report made available to him that the two individuals were flown out by a helicopter that dropped them off at the ranch, where a STARS air ambulance awaited.
“Both patients were green,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Sundre RCMP detachment reported a relatively tame long weekend.
“I believe it went pretty fair,” said Const. Locky Matheson, the department's newest member.
Although the officer was not on shift for the weekend, he said during an interview while reviewing files that about a dozen calls were received from Friday to Monday, including a few driving complaints, criminal code issues, and reports of fireworks being set off during the ongoing dry spell.
“We had several calls of people letting off fireworks,” said Matheson.
“But nothing crazy like the past few long weekends,” he said, adding the situation in the West Country can become "chaotic" on crown land with some campers and off-road users.
“I didn’t see hardly any calls out west,” the constable said, adding he had the impression people in the backcountry were largely behaving.
Police also nabbed two impaired motorists who were operating their vehicle above the legal limit.
