The hangar fire. Photo courtesy Ministry of Central Services.
A provincial deputy minister is personally thanking La Ronge region firefighters for saving a provincial hangar that houses water bombers and wildfire management equipment.
The damages to the building from the early December fire are currently estimated at $1 million, but Deputy Minister of Central Services Richard Murray says the cost could have been much higher had it not been for the quick response of the volunteer La Ronge Regional Fire Department.
Late last month, he penned a letter to the department thanking them for their efforts.
“I thought it was important to acknowledge and thank them for putting themselves at risk, not only because of the fire but because of the terrible frigid conditions as well,” Murray said.
“We’re just so pleased and so thankful that they were there, that they were on the case quickly. They were down there on just a moment’s notice.”
The department’s response started just before midnight on Dec. 6 when they received a report of a fire at the La Ronge Airport. At first, the flames that were sending smoke billowing from the two-story Central Services-owned hangar weren’t visible.
“You couldn’t actually see the fire but you could see the glow when you got there,” said Fire Chief Keven Thomson.
This was no small fire, but that doesn’t mean it was easy to find the source. The firefighters spent more than seven hours using the department’s apparatus to get above the hangar, tear into the building and douse the flames.
“We had to open up the roof itself,” Thomson said.
Crews ripped through metal, insulation and plywood to find the material that was on fire, he said.
“Basically the fire was kind of hiding on us. We’d think we had it down then we’d turn around and we didn’t.”
In total, 12 regional volunteer firefighters answered the call and there were a number of paramedics on scene as well. The conditions were tough: not only was it bitterly cold, it was also dark.
“We had equipment freezing, and there was all those normal winter issues, but the colder it is the more the equipment freezes. So we did have issues with that,” Thomson said.
Once the flames were put out, there was fire and water damage but the structure itself and equipment within remained intact.
“You’re just happy that the fire is out and the less damage you can cause, the better. That’s our main priority, is to preserve property,” Thomson said.
It wasn’t until late December when Denis Renauld, director of Northern Air Operations Wildfire Management, presented the fire department with a token of appreciation, that Thomson realized how important the hangar is to La Ronge. It’s a location where firefighters train and fly out of.
The Dec. 20 presentation by Denis Renauld. Photo courtesy La Ronge Regional Fire Department, Facebook.
“Had we lost the hangar and the government has to rebuild the hangar then maybe the think ‘okay, do we need to build a hangar here, do we need it somewhere else?'” he said.
“That kind of stuff impacts the whole community because the people are here, that’s their job, and if their job wasn’t here maybe they wouldn’t be here.”
A few weeks later, La Ronge Regional Fire Department received Murray’s letter of personal thanks to the crew. For Thomson, the gesture means a lot.
“We’re a volunteer department so especially for them to hear that other people recognize how much effort they put in because sometimes that goes unnoticed. People expect the fire department to show up but they don’t always realize that the volunteers leave jobs to go there,” he said.
Speaking by phone on Wednesday, Murray said the contents of that hangar are hugely important to all of Saskatchewan.
“I don’t think we need to explain to anybody in the north how important those firefighting aircraft are,” he said.
Thomson said the fire seemed to have originated in an area where roof repairs were underway, but Murray said the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
The office space within the hangar is currently being used, but the remainder of repairs will take until spring to be complete.
The hangar is owned by Central Services and leased by the Ministry of Environment.