Scrap yard fire tamed with help of machines

Fire crews extinguish Weyburn blaze with assistance from staff of business

Last night was our training night for our paid, on-call firefighters. They spotted the fire during their training … so we had an immediate response.

Flames were thrown as high as 22 metres into the air from an “intense” fire that broke out in a Weyburn scrap yard Wednesday evening.

Fire crews arrived to Mryglod Steel and Metals, located at the corner of 13th Street and Railway Avenue, at around 8:15 p.m. There they found a large pile of scrap wire burning in the yard, according to Weyburn Fire Chief Simon Almond, who noted the height of the flames.

A machine from the business was used to scoop up piles of the burning wire for firefighters to extinguish, as they tackled the burn incrementally, Almond said.

“Before we could even get the machine to it, we had to knock the fire down to a level where the machine wasn’t going to burn itself.”

A total of five units were dispatched to the scene, including an “aerial truck,” which was used to douse the towering flames from above.

In a message to the Leader-Post, Tim Kerslake wrote he could feel the heat from the flames on his face when he drove by the scene Wednesday.

“Smoke coming off the pile of burning scrap pile pretty much took my breath away,” he wrote, noting that he has asthma and reduced lung capacity.

According to Tyler Mryglod, one of the owners of the business, the fire started sometime after the scrap yard closed its doors for the evening.

“Everyone is OK. There was no one in the yard at the time of the fire,” he wrote in a message to the Leader-Post.

“Thank you to the emergency crews in Weyburn for their quick response and good work,” he added.

After extinguishing the fire, crews left the scene at around 1:30 a.m. Thursday, Almond said.

“Last night was actually our training night for our paid, on-call firefighters,” he said.

“They spotted the fire during their training activities, so we had an immediate response.”

The real-life fire provided the trainees with experience and allowed the fire department to evaluate their skills, Almond noted.

By 6 a.m. Thursday, the site was still being monitored by Mryglod staff, but ice was already beginning to form in the yard.