Residents of the Energy City stayed safe over the long weekend, and that means that the Estevan Fire Department had a chance to sit back and relax.

However, there were a couple of incidents in the days leading up to the holiday.

Fire Chief Dale Feser says that, on Thursday morning, they attended a two vehicle collison on Highway 18 West.

"Thank goodness, there were reports of no injuries by the time we got there, everybody was safe. There was definately some extensive damage to the vehicles, so we provided traffic control, made sure that everyone was okay, and turned the scene back over to the RCMP."

Then, that afternoon, they were called out again.

"We were alerted to a commercial fire alarm in a hotel over on King Street on the northeast side of the city. Upon arrival at the scene, there was actually smoke coming from the crawlspace. Crews quickly gained access through a hatch into the under-workings of the floor-space, and found a sump pump that had shorted out and started the sleeve of the sump itself on fire," Feser related.

"We were able to quickly bring the blaze under control and extinguish it without incident. We spent several minutes afterwards ventilating the structure, and then once the investigation was complete and the cause and origin of the fire was determined, we turned the scene back over to the hotel management."

He noted that one important point to take away from the occasion is to heed and respond to fire alarms, no matter where you are.

"Please make sure that you are exiting the building, and go to the front to the management so that way they can take an accountability report."

"Of course, the first thing that we are concerned with when arriving on scene is life safety. Secondary is actually extinguishing the fire," he added

Feser also stressed that you must not let complacency set in and think that it is just a false alarm.