On Halloween eve, sirens and smoke filled 13th Street East as firefighters rushed to a burning ambulance in the Parkland Ambulance Care garage Saturday afternoon.
Two fire trucks and nine firefighters responded to the call at about 2:45 p.m., just south of Sixth Avenue East.
A resident from across the street phoned emergency to report smoke emerging from the building.
“On arrival, we had a column of black smoke and the structure was fully closed,” said Prince Albert Fire Department captain Kerry Verge.
Brian Reichle, the director of management for Parkland Ambulance, was in the adjacent staff building and he enabled firefighters to enter the smoke-filled garage.
Fire crews were able to reach the fire quickly because they gained access to the overhead doors, which helped with ventilation and visibility, Verge said.
“On investigation, we found out…one of the ambulances caught fire and it just began to extend into the structure, so we were able to knock the fire down before it got involved.”
Verge said extinguishing the fire took just a minute or two, but the fire could have been more difficult had it spread to the oxygen tanks and other medical supplies.
“We may have had a little bit of an unusual circumstance with ambulances,” he said.
“They are modified heavily as far as the vehicle, so they have a lot of batteries and oxygen, and in a building like this … if the structure had become involved, we would have had more of a problem.”
Five ambulances and one show car were in the garage --except for the ambulance that sustained severe damage from the flames, the other vehicles were removed from the building without much damage.
The ambulance in which the fire ignited was about five or six years old, but had undergone the yearly required government inspection within the past couple of weeks, Reichle said.
The cost of a new ambulance is about $150,000, including all of the required equipment inside.
“It’s a huge loss,” Reichle said. “It’s very expensive to lose all these units and equipment.”
He said he suspected the problem was electrical because the ambulances have diesel engines, so they have to remain plugged in to keep warm during the cold season.
“Obviously, the fire investigators and the police will look into what caused the fire, but the building is only a year-and-a-half old, so it’s not an old building,” Reichle said. “It’s not old wiring – it’s all brand new.
“The ambulances get a complete government inspection every year. They are mechanically detailed regularly, so what would have caused it, I have no idea.”
Reichle said the incident wouldn’t affect day-to-day operations, because the vehicles were back-up units that were being stored in the garage.
