Firefighters from the City of Red Deer and Red Deer County were battling two different blazes at the same time Sunday afternoon.
Firefighters were called to the parking lot of 4 Wheel Parts, a Gasoline Alley business, just after 3:30 p.m.
“When crews arrived on scene we found a fully involved SUV,” said Travis Allred, deputy chief of training with Red Deer County Fire.
“We had reports indicating it was suspicious in nature before we even arrived. RCMP were contacted and conducted an investigation.”
No buildings were threatened by the fire, but there was a small grass fire that was quickly extinguished, Allred said, adding he wants to remind the public to keep their distance from firefighters while they’re working.
“We understand it’s interesting to people, but motoring traffic really need to ensure we have space to conduct our activities in a safe manner,” he said.
At the same time, Red Deer Emergency Services was dealing with a fire at the city’s waste management facility.
Fire crews were called to a reported grass fire at about 3:30 p.m. When crews arrived, they was discovered it was garbage in the landfill that was burning and not grass, said Curtis Schaefer, RDES deputy fire chief.
Firefighters “were on scene for about three hours total dealing with the fire,” said Schaefer.
“We had 16 firefighters from the City of Red Deer and two firefighters from Red Deer County helping us with the water-tanker. We also had waste management facility on scene operating heavy equipment to assist moving around the rubble pile and garbage to help us extinguish it faster.”
There was no risk to any structure and no injuries were reported, Schaefer added.
“With the landfill being closed on Sundays, that made our job a lot easier,” he said.
The cause of this fire is under investigation, but is not considered suspicious at this time.
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