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Multiple overnight fires keep Lacombe County fire service busy

The fires left the air smelling smoky on Thursday morning
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(Black Press file photo)

In the early morning hours of Nov. 5 the Lacombe County Fire Service responded to two separate fires and one car accident that happened almost simultaneously.

The fires were both located south of the City of Lacombe and crews from Clive assisted with putting out one of the fires.

Lacombe County Fire Chief Drayton Bussiere said there were no injuries but some property damage occurred as a result of the fires.

Bussiere said it is too early in the investigation to know if the fires were related, suspicious or what caused them.

A post on the Lacombe County Fire Service Facebook page said crews were still on scene of a “significant bale fire” south of the city around 3 a.m. All the blazes were eventually extinguished.

The fire service has received an average amount of calls for the time of year and Bussier said it’s not uncommon for fires to happen at the same time.

“We receive subsequent calls on a semi-regular basis but it’s always a bit interesting to us when there are calls that close together,” said Bussier.

A result of the fires occurring so close together in both location and time was the smoky smell in the air many residents in Lacombe experienced Thursday morning.

Fortunately, it turned out to be a windy day and by early afternoon the smoke had dissipated.

On a related note, the Lacombe County Fire Service is also hiring for paid-on-call firefighters at four departments in the county.

Alix, Bentley, Clive and Eckville are all looking to add to their teams. In order to be at full capacity, the county would like to add 25 more people but Bussier said it’s unrealistic to bring on that many people at one time.

“We’re not at risk of having not enough people, what we’re really just trying to build up our force,” said Bussier.

According to the online job posting, the fires service is looking for people who are 18 or older, have a class five driver’s license, physically able to perform the duties of the job, committed to training at least once a week, live or work in the response area and able to respond to emergencies at various times of the day.

Bussier said the application process will begin with a phone call or email to make sure the applicant understands the responsibilities of the job.

“After that, we have people come out to the firehouse and meet the group to make sure that it actually is for them, and then they’ll start getting some training and eventually end up responding,” said Bussier.

Interested people can apply by contacting their local fire department