PUSLINCH – It was one call after another for Puslinch Fire and Rescue on Wednesday, leaving the service and the new fire chief busy.
Puslinch fire chief Jamie MacNeil said in a phone call the service responded to three major calls Wednesday afternoon.
The first call was at 12:40 p.m. for a large grass fire that burned a little under an acre of land on Watson Road South near Maltby Road.
MacNeil said someone was burning leaves and other materials and didn’t have the proper equipment to put it out, although he added the homeowner was working to assist firefighters.
“One resident called while the other one was working to control it until we got there,” MacNeil said. “We need to make sure people are having the proper equipment around when they’re doing burns to make sure if something does happen they can extinguish quickly.”
Firefighters attended that scene for about 40 minutes.
It wasn’t long until the next call which came in just after 1:20 p.m. for a fully-involved mobile crane fire at an aggregate quarry on Victoria Road South that required mutual aid from Guelph and Rockwood stations.
“You can imagine the size and scope of that fire,” MacNeil said. “The company did a great job assisting the fire department, the operator of the crane actually tried to extinguish it daily quickly, but it was just too big inside by the time he was able to get some extinguishers on it.”
Due to this fire being fully involved, MacNeil said it would be impossible to pinpoint an exact cause of the fire but said it was likely a mechanical issue.
Finally, a third call for a three vehicle collision came in at 4:40 p.m. at the intersection of Wellington Road 32 and Forestell Road. This resulted in minor injuries.
MacNeil said this has been one of the busier days since put on the chief’s hat with the Puslinch fire department, starting earlier in the month.
“We wanted to make sure members of the public, when they’re seeing all this stuff, can rest assured that we’re responding and dealing with these emergencies as they come up,” MacNeil said.
