Wellington North firefighters respond to four calls in one day

WELLINGTON NORTH – Wellington North Fire Services had a busy Saturday, responding to four calls, two of which involved fires.

Brush fire

On Aug. 22 the department was called at about 4:45pm to a brush fire on Southgate Road 4 in Southgate. Wellington North Fire Services (Arthur and Mount Forest stations), Southgate and Durham all responded to the call.

There were about 30 firefighters on scene.

The property owner was clearing trees to make his field larger and created a burn pile along the treeline.

“He left to go to the barn and when he came back from the barn the tops of the trees were burning,” said deputy fire chief Marco Guidotti.

“They’re the pine trees ... that go up like crazy because when we arrived on scene you could just hear it howling.”

At that point the property owner called 911 and used his excavator, which was on scene, to begin ripping up trees to try to stop the spread.

When the firefighters arrived they used chain saws to cut down more trees and used a creek that was about 50 feet away for water, as well as a tanker shuttle.

In total the fire burned about 200 metres of trees.

No one was hurt and no structures were destroyed.

“We were lucky it wasn’t a really windy day because then we really would have been in trouble,” Guidotto said.

The scene was cleared at about 8:30pm.

Grain bin fire

As firefighters were finishing up the brush fire call, the Mount Forest station responded to a call for a grain bin fire. That was around 7:50pm.

“So what happened there, the propane line broke ... then it caught fire so it came out like a torch,” Guidotti said. “But the saving grace there was that the owners were just on the other side of the silo bin and they heard it and quickly shut the gas off.”

If the owners hadn’t thought quickly the bin would have been completely destroyed, Guidotti said. As it was, only the outside ventilation fans and wiring were damaged.

“All that stuff just melted and burned,” he said. “Everything inside of the bin was still good.”

Other calls

Wellington North Fire Service also responded to an alarm activation call and a medical call on Aug. 22.