Despite the heat and the sheer number of people, Prince Albert's street fair on Saturday went off without any major injuries. (Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff)

By Rob Mahon

Safe Street Fair

Paramedics thrilled to see injury-free street fair

Jun 20, 2022 | 12:00 PM

If the street fair this past weekend proved anything, it’s that the people of Prince Albert haven’t forgotten how to show up for the event. Apparently, they also haven’t forgotten how to handle the heat despite a long time without that either.

Parkland Ambulance had a presence at the street fair just in case their should be injuries, as can happen when so many people are crammed into a tight space. Fortunately, the street fair went off without any major incidents for paramedics.

“We’ve seen a couple of minor injuries during the street fair, and we always do,” said Lyle Karasiuk, director of public affairs for Parkland Ambulance. “People are just excited to be out and about and they’re not watching where they’re going, or because of all of the extra things in there they bump into something. So we do find always through the street fair a few minor scrapes and bumps and stuff, but nothing too serious.”

According to Karasiuk, about the worst thing to come from the street fair is going to be an awful lot of cases of sunburn, as by far the hottest day of the year so far fell right on the day of the fair.

“I saw lots of red skin as I left late in the day,” Karasiuk said. “That’s a reminder to folks that whenever the sun is out, even on a cloudy day too; but certainly when it was as gorgeous as it was on Saturday, a hat, plenty of water, and of course… sunscreen.”

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All in all, however, Karasiuk was pleased with the way the day went.

There were two elements of relief for him.

The first element of relief came from this lack of major injuries.

“Lots of people were directing themselves to water stations or fountains that were outside or stopping by for a cool treat from one of the street vendors,” said Karasiuk. “Outside of a few cases of sunburn that maybe some folks are nursing back to school or work today, no major injuries.”

The other was that, for the first time since 2019, the street fair was able to happen, and people didn’t have pandemic restrictions to work around.

“It was a beautiful experience to be out and about and meet people and see people,” Karasiuk said. “I know I visited and chatted with so many old friends and colleagues and neighbors. Our paramedics gave away almost 1,500 balloons.”

Karasiuk added their most serious call of the weekend came from outside the street fair as they were called to an axe-related injury from woodcutting.

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP