Three significant back-to-back fire calls kept the Moncton firefighters going steady on Friday.
It was all hands on deck to assist, and extra crews and trucks had to be called in to assist.
Platoon Chief Brad Calhoun says the first call, for a house on fire on Weldon Street, came in at around 5 p.m.
“When the first crews arrived on the scene, they reported some heavy fire from the rear of the structure that was extending into the structure itself,” Calhoun told our newsroom.
He adds it was a challenging fire, but the firefighters got the brunt of it knocked down quickly. That’s despite it being an older structure with a balloon frame and lots of renovations.
“It became pretty labour intensive in terms of searching out some hidden fires, and the crews had to work to open up the walls, so it took us a little bit of time to make sure we had it totally knocked down,” Calhoun stressed.
He says there appeared to be significant damage to the residence, but being an older home, with lots of renovations, sometimes it can end up being a total loss.
While battling the Weldon Street blaze, another call came in just after 7 pm for a fire alarm in the 1900 block of Main Street.
“So we freed up some crews, and had some extra staff come in to staff some extra trucks in overtime, so they were able to respond to the second event. They also reported a working fire in a motel, and some heavy smoke on arrival,” Calhoun said.
That fire was also extinguished fairly quickly, but crews spent around an hour or so clearing all of the smoke and ensuring it was safe for the other occupants of the hotel to return.
The main fire was contained in the laundry room area, and the smoke got up into the attic.
Following that call, another one came in for a fire in the woods just off Wheeler Boulevard near Carson Drive.
“So there was a significant fire in the woods there, and that took an engine and a tanker approximately two hours to bring that under control,” Calhoun said.
There were reports on social media that the plume of smoke could be seen from kilometres away.
It’s suspected that it was an encampment fire, but Calhoun explained that by the time they got there, everything was all burnt up.
Our newsroom asked whether this is concerning for the Moncton Fire Department, and potentially could have been a lot worse, with the number of forest fires across the country currently.
“We’re pretty fortunate here in the southeast that our forest fire index is good to moderate. So we’re pretty good right now, but that could certainly change with a couple more dry days, and it could certainly develop into more of a concern as we get into the middle of the summer here,” Calhoun said.
With three fires in such a short time, Calhoun explained, they were fortunate there were enough personnel answering the call to come back to help out. He adds that it made a significant difference in the success of these multiple events.
“All in all, there were no injuries to any firefighters or civilians in any of the events. This is always good news. And the guys and girls did a great job. They were running pretty steadily there for about five hours before we were able to get back to some sense of normalcy for the rest of the shift,” Calhoun told our newsroom.
There’s no official word yet on what caused any of the fires.
