One of Brian's trucks filling up a water containment tank. (Submitted photo/Brian Wojciechowski)

By Ian Gustafson

Working Together

Candle Lake water hauler helps fight Cloverdale fire with 40 hour shift

May 21, 2021 | 7:00 AM

A local business owner is reflecting on his time helping in the fight against the massive Cloverdale wildfire northeast of Prince Albert, while also applauding the efforts of everyone involved.

Brian Wojciechowski, owner of Big Blue Water Services in Candle Lake, said he was called in to help Monday when the blaze started. He worked through the night and into Tuesday evening for a total of 40 hours on the job.

Part of his effort, among other tasks, was to transport water into containment tanks also called ‘pumpkins’ used for sprinkler systems to douse the homes and acreages. He explained he brought water to anyone who needed it.

“If someone needed water, we were doing it,” he said, adding he took directions from the battalion chiefs on where to go.

To fill his truck, they opened hydrants at the Prince Albert Airport and had three designated spots they would return to when they were empty.

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He estimated from 2 p.m. Monday when he began working to 8 p.m. Tuesday he drove around 300 miles and carried 100 loads of water.

“One battalion chief asked me on Monday night he said, ‘how long can you stay?’ and I said to him ‘as long as you want me to stay, I’m here until you tell me to go home.’ Until it comes to a point where you can’t go anymore,” he said. “I told the battalion chiefs and the guys in command the evening of [Tuesday] night for safety reasons and more than anything ‘I’m getting pretty burnt out you know putting 36 hours straight without any stop I’m going to have to go and have a sleep.’”

He wanted to commend the Prince Albert Fire Department for work they did and the challenges they faced.

“They had emergency response measures in place, and they had phenomenal people handling it,” Wojciechowski said, adding those in charge were calm and knew what they were doing.

He remains on call if the fire department needs him but as of Thursday morning the Cloverdale wildfire has been contained.

“I want to compliment the City of Prince Albert, the fire commissioner, the fire chief, the battalion chief and all their staff for their professionalism and how they actually handled it and making it work,” he said.

Prince Albert Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief Alex Paul told paNOW they have a list of water haulers compiled from the area and said for the Cloverdale fire they were utilizing four companies. They would report to an onsite incident commander who would be tasked out to individual crews.

“A crew of firefighters that was looking after sprinkler systems were given one or two water haulers and they were just cycling between hydrants or ponds,” Paul said. “Later on in the operation we were drawing from a pond further east from the city but initially we were getting water from hydrants on the airport property, so the water shuttles were just going between the hydrants and back to our holding tanks we were pumping from.”

Paul added the water haulers were essential in saving the properties.

“If it hadn’t been for the water supply that we were able to continuously supply these water tanks that we were pumping from to keep the sprinklers on the structures; that was the only thing that saved them.”

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Ian.gustafson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @iangustafson12