It was only a few short weeks ago when Medstead was beneath a frosty blanket of snow. Winter stretched well into April and has taken a leap over spring weather into the world of summer.
Leaves and brush that were exposed after the quick melt are surrounded by dried grass, not yet wetted by spring rain, making for a prime situation for fires.
There has not been a lack of weather fronts. May 2, Medstead found itself swept up in a power outage which effected the Northwest. According to Jordan Jackle, SaskPower spokesperson, the outage struck at 5 a.m. The problem was a burned out transmission structure several kilometres north of North Battleford.
There was fire damage to the structure and crews left an update to the public at 9:30 a.m. expecting power to be restored within 12 hours of the initial outage. Throughout, Twitter was a resource for updates. Jackle noted crews were on site quickly and were able to manually divert power to places of immediate need such as hospitals.
Medstead had power restored in the afternoon, more than an hour before the slated time. Jackle said SaskPower continued to look for the exact source, noting the wind storm that night.
The school has a generator, but did not have functioning plumbing. A water boil advisory is in place as the outage caused pumps to be down. The boil advisory is projected to be lifted by the end of the week of May 6.
The dry weather, coupled with a day where the water pumps did not function, serve as a good reminder of the fire ban that has been put in place. According to Christin Egeland, RM administrator, the ban was imposed after a small brush fire west of the turnoff onto Highway 3.
Desmond Boyd, Medstead Fire Department member, notes the conditions that lead to the fire ban are dry grass and moldy leaves that are 鈥渂asically kindling.鈥� He also says when rain does come, the ban is likely to be lifted.
Egeland says information about RM ban are put on Facebook, signs around town, at the RM office and an advisory is put on the radio. Shortly after the RM initiated a fire ban, the village followed suit. The Medstead fire crew had an opportunity to conduct training over the course of the ban.
The combination of power outage, water boil advisory and fire ban accentuate the need to keep necessities on hand: water, batteries, a radio, a fully gassed up vehicle and food not requiring heat to prepare. This also highlights the value of a landline, as Medstead often finds itself in an out of service zone for both cellular calls and Internet, which is wired to the electrical system.
