The fire numbers are in for 2019 in the town of Battleford.
The annual fire report was presented at Monday’s meeting of Battleford town council by Fire Chief Larry Gabruch. The total fire response in 2019 was 88, which included 55 for Battleford Fire Department and 33 for the RM of Battle River Fire Protection Service.
Collectively, those represent the lowest calls for service since 2014, when there were 75 responses. It is down from 2018 numbers, which were the highest of the past 10 years, with 86 calls for Battleford Fire Department and 44 for RM of Battle River.
Fire numbers were presented for a 10-year period going back to 2009. Of the 55 Battleford calls in 2019, 23 were false alarms. The others included nine vehicle accident responses, seven carbon monoxide calls and five residential dwelling responses. There were four sharps pickups in 2019.
The vast majority of carbon monoxide calls, said Gabruch, were due to improper maintenance of the detectors. He reminds the public plug-in detectors have only a five-year life, after which the sensitivity starts to fail. He also recommends changing the battery once a year.
The estimated structural fire loss in 2019 was $30,000, well down from the $500,000 in 2018.
In RM of Battle River there was only one false alarm, but 11 vehicle accidents, eight grass fires and six vehicle fires in 2019.
There were a couple of STARS air ambulance landings in the RM last year as well.
Gabruch described 2019 as a “relatively benign year, which is a good thing in the business that we’re in.”
None of the trends or analytics caused any concern, he said, and the increases seen over the 10-year period were attributable to the growth of the general population.
The most important statistic to report, said Gabruch was that there was no fire or vehicle fatalities in Battleford in 2019. The one negative from Battle River, he noted was the loss of life from one vehicle fatality.
