NEWS PHOTO EMMA BENNETT A city firefighter battles the frigid temperatures as well as a fire that broke out last week at a Third Street home under renovation.
Firefighters need to take special precautions to battle blazes in the freezing cold, says Medicine Hat’s fire prevention officer.
Curtis Sjodin says the major challenge is ensuring water from the firehose doesn’t freeze.
“We run dry pumps, just because if you have water in the pumps, then it can freeze, which obviously wouldn’t be good, so we only introduce water to the pump at the last second, and then when it’s spinning the water is circulating so it won’t freeze,” Sjodin said.
They also have to turn off the house’s utilities, whether it’s gas, electricity or water.
“We have to try and turn on the utilities as soon as we can after, just because we don’t want to cause more damage to the structure,” said Sjodin.
“We have to work to try and get either the furnace turned on quickly … if it’s safe to do so, or we have to work get an external heating source in there, whereas if it happened in the summer you don’t have to rush.”
Tools may freeze up, so firefighters need to let them thaw out before putting them back on the truck, but the hose must be taken back as soon as possible before it freezes and becomes impossible to transfer.
Even a small kitchen fire, like the one last week that broke out at a house in the process of being renovated on Third Street NE, requires similar precautions.
“It was (a) spontaneous ignition of oily rags,” Sjodin said, adding that the blaze was quickly extinguished.
Homeowners and tenants can also take precautions of their own to avoid fires starting, such as testing their smoke alarm monthly.
“If you’re doing any painting, make sure you read the instructions,” he said. “There’s warnings on the labels.”
