‘It’s pretty devastating:’ Radville loses town office in fire

Radville Mayor Rene Bourassa said it was overwhelming Wednesday when he heard the town’s office had been destroyed in a fire.

“Your stomach kind of falls out,” Bourassa said. “There’s a lot of memories in there.

“It’s pretty devastating.”

Radville’s fire department got a call Wednesday at 2:20 a.m., about a garage fire. Once firefighters arrived, they saw the town office and fire hall were in flames.

The building was completely destroyed, but nobody was injured. Deputy Fire Chief Darryl Ferguson said it’s unknown what caused the fire at this time.

Ferguson said they were able to get two pumper trucks and some uniforms out of the building, but they weren’t able to salvage anything else.

Firefighters from nearby communities such as Yellow Grass, Ceylon and Weyburn assisted in fighting the fire.

“We lost two fire trucks and a fair amount of equipment,” Ferguson said.

The town also lost many of its important documentation, files, tractors, mowers and sanders which are essential for upkeep in the community located about 130 kilometres south of Regina.

“I’m sure there will be some sort of investigation,” Ferguson said in regard to what caused the fire.

Bourassa said community leaders had a meeting Wednesday morning to create an action plan to recover from the loss.

“We can hope there’s some stuff on backup,” he said.

Bourassa was thankful to everyone who came together to help the town through the incident, including the various fire departments, the Ministry of Highways, the restaurants that opened to help serve coffee, and many community members.