Fire closes Picture Butte Community Centre

Posted on March 12, 2019 by Sunny South News

By Nikki Jamieson
Sunny South News

The Picture Butte Community Centre will be closed until the end of March after a fire last Wednesday.

The Picture Butte Fire department received a call at 3:15 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6, to respond to a fire at the Community Centre in town, and sent out a mutual aid call, to which the Coaldale Fire Department responded. Picture Butte Fire Chief Frank West said some maintenance work was being done at the time of the fire.

“They were working on a frozen drain line in the building, using a propane torch to work on the line. Unfortunately, the work resulted in one of the walls catching on fire,” said West. “Because it’s, Monday to Friday, it is tough to get all the firefighters available, we did have a mutual aid request to Coaldale Fire Department, and they sent a fire engine from Coaldale to assist.”

Fire crews were on the scene until 7 p.m. that night. No one was injured during the fire, and the fire is considered to be accidental.

“The official cause was listed as the maintenance work, that was occurring on the drain line, so it does down as accidental.”

West said they estimate the building will be closed until the end of March for repairs.