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Truck at Shuswap Regional Airport burns in ‘random event’

Salmon Arm Fire Department responds to three calls in one hour
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About noon on Dec. 28, 2021, firefighters were called to the Shuswap Regional Airport where a large truck was in flames. It was extinguished without anything else catching fire but sustained extensive damage. (Salmon Arm Fire Department photo)

The Salmon Arm Fire Department was kept on the run after receiving three calls in the course of an hour on a minus 20 degree Tuesday.

About 11 a.m. Dec. 28, firefighters were summoned to the Canoe Forest Products mill.

Deputy Fire Chief Gary Lebeter said one of the dryers at the plant was on fire but the mill’s deluge system was able to put it out. Firefighters did a walk-through of the area to determine that everything had been completely extinguished.

About the same time another call came in regarding a possible fire at an apartment on Okanagan Avenue. Firefighters in rescue truck 3 responded and it turned out to be a false alarm.

At noon a third call came in, this one regarding a truck on fire at the Shuswap Regional Airport.

When firefighters arrived the cab of the large truck was fully engulfed in flames.

Lebeter said the driver of the truck had used a remote starter to get the vehicle warmed up.

The warming unfortunately went to the extremes.

A person at the airport said the driver had been working on one of the snow removal machines, a wheel loader, when he walked outside, looked back and the truck was on fire.

“It was a random event.”

Fire crews were able to quickly extinguish the blaze.

Read more: Request for four-way stop on Okanagan Avenue in Salmon Arm turned down

Read more: Airport in Salmon Arm to recertify in order to keep providing medevac for region



martha.wickett@saobserver.net
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Martha Wickett

About the Author: Martha Wickett

came to Salmon Arm in May of 2004 to work at the Observer. I was looking for a change from the hustle and bustle of the Lower Mainland, where I had spent more than a decade working in community newspapers.
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