A home is still standing in Lacombe after firefighters quickly extinguished a vehicle fire on Monday afternoon.
On Oct. 27th, Lacombe Fire was dispatched to a vehicle fire at a residence in Lacombe.
Jim Lozinsky, the owner of the vehicle and the residence it was parked at, said he left the vehicle idling in the driveway while he ran a quick errand.
When he returned, the vehicle was already totally engulfed in flames.
Lozinsky said it felt like a long time waiting for firefighters to arrive on scene, but he is grateful they were at least able to save his home.
“I’m glad the house is safe.”
Though it took Lacombe Fire crews several minutes to arrive on scene, once they did the fully involved fire was extinguished within minutes.
The vehicle was destroyed by the fire but fire crews were able to save the home that it was parked at, though there was some damage to the large garage door and area.
“It was easily controlled,” said Fire Chief Ed van Delden.
He said his biggest concern at the time was actually preventing the fire from spreading into the adjacent attached garage.
Fire crews quickly removed parts of the soffit and doused the garage to prevent the fire from spreading.
van Delden said that in such cases, firefighters’ priority is to save the house, which is still worth saving, rather than the vehicle, which was already beyond saving.
It was a busy week for Lacombe Fire crews, who responded to several other incidents aside from the vehicle fire.
During the weekend, Lacombe Fire was dispatched to investigate a few outside fires. This time of year, many farmers are burning stubble in their fields and passers-by often mistake those for grassfires.
van Delden said that if you see a fire where bystanders are present, there probably is no emergency.
However, he added that should the fire department be dispatched in such a case, firefighters still need to verify that burn permits for such controlled fires are being met.
On Oct. 24th, Lacombe Fire also responded to no less than three collisions.
The first was in the morning where a southbound pickup truck was traveling in the north-bound lane of the QEII Hwy. and struck a semi-trailer hauling fuel.
van Delden said the pickup burst into flame as a result of the collision, but no one was seriously hurt.
“(It was) a pretty serious accident that in terms of injuries, was surprisingly very minor,” said van Delden.
“I’ve never seen a vehicle with that much damage where the occupants of the vehicle were able to walk away.”
That afternoon at about 4:15 p.m., Lacombe Fire also responded to a single-vehicle in the Burbank subdivision near Blackfalds where a half-ton truck had struck an approach.
Once again, there were no serious injuries but EMS did treat patients on-scene.
A third collision involving a half-ton truck took place on Woody Nook Road last Friday night at 8:55 p.m. as well where EMS also treated for minor injuries but did not transport anyone to hospital.
On Oct. 23rd, Lacombe Fire provided mutual aid to the Blackfalds Fire department at a grassfire that had been sparked by a downed power line. van Delden said that an individual cutting firewood had felled a tree which struck the power line or struck another tree which downed the power line.
Sparks from the downed line then ignited a fire in the brush of the area, but van Delden said the fire did not spread much because of the ‘swampy’ conditions of the area.
He added that while the fire did not spread, it burned and smoldered for a long time and firefighters returned to the scene on Oct. 25th to put out some hot spots in the area.
“In the end it didn’t really burn very much in terms of area, but it burned very deep and had lots of smoke,” said van Delden.