The Olds Fire Department responded to a residential structure fire on Friday night and, tragically, a deceased male was located at the scene.
It happened just after 11:15pm on Friday, November 29th at 4617 48th Street in Olds and OFD was dispatched following reports of an active fire in the basement and an occupant trapped inside.
OFD Fire Chief Justin Andrew points out that light smoke and fire conditions in the basement living area were encountered by fire crews after they arrived at the scene. He says “when fire crews made entry into the structure they found a very small contained fire in a localized area and came across a deceased male in that location. Crews quickly extinguished the fire and removed the victim. The victim was assessed by EMS on scene before being declared deceased.”
Andrew notes the Olds Fire Department can verify that this fire is not suspicious in nature at this time. He says “the investigation into the cause of the fire and the circumstances is still ongoing. Due to the nature of there being a loss of life, our determination of the cause is dependent on the information that would be required from the Medical Examiner’s Office when their investigation is complete and it can take some time so there won’t be any further determination or announcement about the cause.”
He highlights the fact that the dollar value for loss of the structure is deemed to be minimal at this point so there was no substantial loss to the structure and insurance agencies are looking at that right now with the property owner.
Andrew states that the RCMP are involved in any fatality outside in the community and through their process they contact the coroner’s office in Calgary and then they go through the process of contacting the next of kin and doing the notifications and the process through that. He says “we’d like to just extend our heartfelt condolences to the friends and family of the deceased. This is a very traumatizing event and it’s difficult for a lot of people. There is always that feeling when this kind of thing happens in the community and it has an effect on people that know the individuals. So that is always first and foremost but I’d like to look at the positive that there was no further injury or loss of life to other occupants of the structure and that’s very important.”
According to Andrew, anytime that they experience a situation with a loss of life it has impact on the responding emergency crew members whether it is police, fire or EMS. He says “we do have a support network in place where we utilize a technique called defusing or debriefing and that is where we get together and talk about the circumstances and the situation. It’s kind of a preliminary method of managing the event and the stress surrounded by it. If we have further need with identified individuals, if they are having issues managing the stress or the situation we have access to a pier support team and we also have clinical counselling that is available to all members that individuals can seek out a one-on-one.”
He adds, they do spend a lot of time and effort supporting the people that are responding to these calls.
