A fire in a Vimy trailer park destroyed one home and damaged at least one more last Friday afternoon, causing at least one resident to raise concerns about the community’s fire hydrants.
Fire crews were called out to the house fire at the south end of the hamlet at about 1 p.m., with more than a dozen firefighters from three different county departments on scene.
County regional fire chief John Biro said the first dispatch came in shortly after 1 p.m., with the Westlock Rural and Clyde departments responding, and the Pickardville department was dispatched shortly thereafter.
“Pickardville got dispatched for backup and extra water supply,” he said.
Upon arriving, firefighters quickly brought the fire under control using a large water-holding tank combined with the county’s tenders, which are the trucks with the large water tanks on them.
“The residents were already outside; there wasn’t anybody inside which was a big relief for the departments responding,” Biro said.
Nonetheless, one resident was taken to Westlock hospital as a precaution.
Vimy resident Dave Grouette was watching the fire crews work and commented that the fire hydrants in the community don’t work.
“They are just decorations, all of them,” he said in regards to the hydrants.
“None of them work.”
Biro said that was indeed the case, with the fire hydrants not producing enough pressure or volume to do much in the way of firefighting. He said it’s the same case with hydrants in the county’s other hamlets — they exist mainly as a way to flush out water lines.
“We’ve got these ornaments sitting throughout the county looking like fire hydrants,” he said. “The hydrants are basically ornaments; they’re nothing we can use or depend on.”
To be able to rely on those hydrants, there would have to be booster stations along the water line to build up pressure when there’s a high demand, like when fighting a fire.
Instead, county departments are trained to rely on the water holding tank, which is refilled as needed by the tenders, which in turn can refill by pumping water out of a dugout or other body of water near the fire.
At Friday’s fire, crews did end up using the fire hydrant to refill one of their tenders, but that’s not an ideal situation.
“We can use them for filling trucks, but it can be a slow process because there’s just no pressure out there,” Biro said.
Vimy resident Maureen Hastie said that at about 12:30 p.m., a kid from the neighbourhood came and knocked on her door asking her to phone 911.
“I came running in my pajamas down the street to get the address,” she said.
Hastie said the smoke was visible coming out of the kitchen, and “smoldered” for several minutes before flames ultimately engulfed the structure. She said the woman who lived in the trailer was able to escape safely.
She added that another neighbour with a truck was able to attach a chain to the vehicle in the driveway and pull it to safety.
Seventeen firefighters responded to the call, with some staying on the scene well into the evening.
