Mother Nature creates big mess for Prince Albert

A city wide cleanup is underway in Prince Albert following a brief but powerful storm Wednesday morning.

Within a span of less than 10 minutes, high winds and hail wreaked havoc, splitting trees, pulling down power lines, and just making a general mess in the city’s streets and parks. Jay Zablocki, battalion chief for Prince Albert’s Fire Department, said crews were very busy.

“We had 24 calls within a span of probably an hour and a half,” he said.

Among the more serious calls was a small electrical fire at Ecole St Mary High School, which resulted in students being evacuated to the nearby Sacred Heart Cathedral. However, they were never in any sort of danger.

“We’re not sure entirely of the cause of that one yet but definitely something to do with the storm,” Zablocki said.

Another call was a structure fire in the 800 block of Sixth Street East. Zablocki explained the nearby power line was pulled down onto the house, which started a fire in the attic area. Fire crews were forced to cut a hole in the roof to extinguish the flames.

“The house was still electrified. We had to wait for SaskPower before we could engage it fully,” Zablocki said.

In order to handle the increased number of calls, the fire department called in every available resource.

“We hope that guys respond to the call backs and get in and help out and, in this case, it worked out very well and we had all the staff that we needed to handle the situation,” Zablocki said.

Tim Yeaman, manager of parks and open spaces for the City of Prince Albert, explained crews were working all day, addressing issues related to fallen trees.

“We would encourage all residents that if they are experiencing an issue with a tree over a power line, that they reach out to SaskPower right away,” he said.

Yeaman added all other calls can be directed to the city’s community services department.

“Just in the office alone we’ve taken over 150 calls just for tree service already,” he said.

Yeaman also explained calls will be assessed on a priority basis and level of safety risk, adding non-priority calls will likely be addressed towards the end of the week.

“We will see hazards into the next couple of weeks. So if homeowners do see something and they are concerned about it, make us aware by calling that number at community services and we will be certainly happy to assist them,” he said.