Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food
Again, it happened just a few weeks ago, on a Sunday. A field had caught fire.
“We seem to be getting more and more fires like these, particularly with peas when you pick them up with the combine,” explains Eston’s Town Administrator Gary Johnson. “It has something to do with the dust that just builds up over time, more than with wheat. It is extremely flammable.”
Until recently, the Volunteer Fire Department would have brought out its venerable 1966 fire engine, designed more for fighting fires in town than in the fields. Richard Barron is the local fire chief.
“We get winds of up to 50 kilometers an hour regularly out here. Even at 20 kilometers and hour, when the fire takes off on you, it just leaps across the top of the crops. It gets dangerous, not just for our citizens but also for the firefighters.
“We used to have guys hanging from the side of the truck to hose down the fire as the truck moved. This was pretty dangerous. We figured it was time to update our equipment.”
The Town of Eston and a number of neighboring Rural Municipalities that have collaborated towards fire prevention for as long as Johnson remembers got to work on a solution.
“We set our sights on a unit with a front bumper-mounted nozzle and a range of up to 100 feet, with a remote-control system inside the cab, allowing the driver to drive alongside the fire while pumping water on it at a speed of up to 18 kilometers and hour. Bigger engine; bigger tank.”
It’s the kind of autonomy that would have been unthinkable not that long ago. The truck also needed to be able to fight structural fires. The committee had looked for a suitable used unit, but none was available. It came down to finding $188,000 to pay for a new one.
“All the Rural Municipalities chipped in: $52,000 here; $11,000 there. Farm Credit Canada donated $20,000. The Fire Department engaged in all kinds of fundraising activities like a Firemen’s Ball. Everyone chipped in. The firemen alone raised $62,000.”
Pretty soon, the funding structure was in place and the new truck came to town. It is the typical rural Saskatchewan story. A need is expressed and everyone comes together to get the job done.
Still, field fires remain a risk and Fire Chief Barron advises producers to take the water truck to the field in the fall before the combine, or any machine for that matter, as a basic precaution.
It only takes a spark to see a year’s crop go up in smoke.
Gary Johnson
Town Administrator
Eston
(306) 962-4444
Again, it happened just a few weeks ago, on a Sunday. A field had caught fire.
“We seem to be getting more and more fires like these, particularly with peas when you pick them up with the combine,” explains Eston’s Town Administrator Gary Johnson. “It has something to do with the dust that just builds up over time, more than with wheat. It is extremely flammable.”
Until recently, the Volunteer Fire Department would have brought out its venerable 1966 fire engine, designed more for fighting fires in town than in the fields. Richard Barron is the local fire chief.
“We get winds of up to 50 kilometers an hour regularly out here. Even at 20 kilometers and hour, when the fire takes off on you, it just leaps across the top of the crops. It gets dangerous, not just for our citizens but also for the firefighters.
“We used to have guys hanging from the side of the truck to hose down the fire as the truck moved. This was pretty dangerous. We figured it was time to update our equipment.”
The Town of Eston and a number of neighboring Rural Municipalities that have collaborated towards fire prevention for as long as Johnson remembers got to work on a solution.
“We set our sights on a unit with a front bumper-mounted nozzle and a range of up to 100 feet, with a remote-control system inside the cab, allowing the driver to drive alongside the fire while pumping water on it at a speed of up to 18 kilometers and hour. Bigger engine; bigger tank.”
It’s the kind of autonomy that would have been unthinkable not that long ago. The truck also needed to be able to fight structural fires. The committee had looked for a suitable used unit, but none was available. It came down to finding $188,000 to pay for a new one.
“All the Rural Municipalities chipped in: $52,000 here; $11,000 there. Farm Credit Canada donated $20,000. The Fire Department engaged in all kinds of fundraising activities like a Firemen’s Ball. Everyone chipped in. The firemen alone raised $62,000.”
Pretty soon, the funding structure was in place and the new truck came to town. It is the typical rural Saskatchewan story. A need is expressed and everyone comes together to get the job done.
Still, field fires remain a risk and Fire Chief Barron advises producers to take the water truck to the field in the fall before the combine, or any machine for that matter, as a basic precaution.
It only takes a spark to see a year’s crop go up in smoke.
Gary Johnson
Town Administrator
Eston
(306) 962-4444
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