Digby firefighters kept busy
Within 10 minutes department received half a dozen flooded basement calls
“It never rains but it pours” certainly applied to Digby firefighters who were busy responding to numerous calls this past weekend and on Monday (Jan. 18-21).
On Friday, Jan. 18, Digby and Bear River departments responded to a structure fire in Marshalltown at 5:45 a.m. The origin of the fire is under investigation as there was no heating source, nor power to the building.
“It’s still structurally sound so it’s still standing,” said Digby fire chief Robert Morgan.
That night, at 7:35 p.m., firefighters were called out to a fire in a laundry room at 3rd Ave. in Digby. It’s undetermined as to whether the fire started from build-up of lint or if it was caused by electrical malfunction in the dryer. Damage was minimal.
Morgan says it’s important to clean lint traps regularly.
“I clean ours every week and every once in a while I take the trap right out and look behind the trap too,” he said.
On Sunday night the department responded to a slew of flooded basement calls – seven in total. Sometimes these are addressed by being pumped out or by unplugging a drain, or by diverting water away from entry points.
“On one call we found the Rob Hersey and Sharon White run a pump to empty out a flooded basement in Digby on Sunday, Jan. 20. The Digby fire department responded to several calls for assistance of flooded basements.
water running from the lawn into the basement windows, so we diverted the water away,” said Morgan.
“Some fire departments don’t respond to flooded basements,
but we handle them. We’re there to help.”
Within 10 minutes they had five or six calls that night.
The area – and indeed much of the province – was under a heavy
rainfall warning at the time.
“We had three or four trucks on the road with pumps. We did what we could do. There wasn’t a whole lot of damage when we were done,” said Morgan.
At 6:21 a.m. Monday the firefighters responded to a motor vehicle collision in Bayview. A single car went off the road and thankfully there were no serious injuries to the driver.