Estevan Fire and Rescue were called out a few matters over the past few days starting with one on Monday evening, around 9:00 pm.

"We were alerted to a possible grassfire at the south end of the city," explained Fire Chief Dale Feser, "right around the city limits. Crews responded to the location. Upon arrival at the scene, it was noted that it was actually a bonfire that was being conducted in an approved burning appliance on the property. So we cleared the scene and returned to the fire station."

He added that while farmers need to call in their controlled burns to avoid accidental response by the fire department, there is no similar process for bonfires. 

"When people are driving by, and it is dry out there, they are going to be quick to call 911 and report a fire when they see one. If the dispatch services can cross-reference that information with the location to see if there was a controlled burn called, therefore preventing an unnecessary response."

"This just happened to be a passerby and of course, being dark, they may not have seen the people sitting around there and just saw the flames and thought maybe that this was an open fire or grassfire that was unattended. The people were being very respectful of the property as well as responsible during the process so we just kindly for taking ownership of what was going on down there and being responsible with it and left the scene."

Feser added that at around 10:45 am yesterday morning, they were called out to a report of a possible gas leak at the Estevan Curling Club. 

"Crews arrived on-scene and were immediately met by a strong odour of natural gas at the front doors. The facility was empty at the time and safely evacuated so that helped us out. We waited for SaskEnergy to arrive on-scene. We isolated the gas service and there was a substantial amount of natural gas that was found in the building."

"It appeared that the pilot light had gone out on a commercial cooking appliance and thereby expelling natural gas into the building. We were able to safely ventilate the building and keep the levels manageable and down to a normal level."

He added that it was a team effort working with their partners at SaskEnergy and other companies to fix the faulty appliances and ensure the building was safe.