By Angela Hill

Firefighters turned crime fighters

May 4, 2011 | 12:10 PM

Firefighters in the rural municipality of Buckland doubled as crime fighters early this morning after they thwarted a theft attempt.

The crew was returning from an early morning call when they found several of their vehicles broken into.

They started looking around and saw that there were people inside one of the nearby buildings, behind R & W Custom Collision.

“As I got out of the vehicle I noticed someone trying to open up a sliding door,” said Ward Howat, deputy fire chief of Buckland Volunteer Fire Department and the shop’s owner.

“I think we thwarted them by catching them at the time, they didn’t get a chance to leave the building.

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“We kind of yelled at them a little bit when we pulled up. They went inside the building and hid and we just kind of kept the building on guard until the RCMP showed up,” he said.

When RCMP arrived the fire department filled them in on the situation.

“When we got there we were told that there were fire arms in the building that were locked and secured, but didn’t know if these guys had broken in and gotten access to them,” said Cpl. Rob King, RCMP spokesman.

To protect themselves they called for the Prince Albert police department’s canine unit.

“The advantage of the dog is that the dog can go in much quicker and the dog can go directly to them because the dog can smell where they are and (flush) them out much more effectively and much quicker than it would take members going through and physically searching a building,” King said.

The dog arrived and police gave the suspects one more chance to leave the building.

“They tried to talk them out, they wouldn’t come out, so they sent the dog in and that helped get them out,” Howat said.

Two people were arrested, there were no firearms and the stolen property was recovered, said King.

“Luckily they didn’t get away with anything,” Howat said.

“What we did was stop them from stealing a bunch of quads and stuff and getting away with it.”

Howat said he thinks there is about $1,000 in damages on his truck and another firefighter will have to replace a vehicle window.

This isn’t the first time the firefighters have stepped into a crime fighting role.

“Quite a few years back too, one time when we were at the fire hall, we actually caught some people … breaking into our trucks and stealing too. So this is the second time the fire department has caught people breaking into vehicles in this area.

“It’s kind of neat,” Howat said.

See more: RCMP take two into custody

ahill@panow.com