The long weekend was a safe one for locals and for first responders.

Okotoks Fire Chief Ken Thevenot

In this week's edition of the fire report it was a quiet week for Okotoks Fire Services.

Fire Chief Ken Thevenot says his crew responded to 17 different calls.

"It was a fairly quiet long weekend which is a good thing for us," he says. "We attended five alarm system activations, we had a vehicle fire last Thursday in the Drake Landing area, seven medical responses, a grass fire, public hazard and two motor vehicle accidents."

While working on the scene at Drake Landing, Thevenot says there were plenty of drivers passing by while taking pictures with their cell phones and he's asking those passing future sites to put the phone away and focus on the road and those working to save lives or put a fire out.

"Any incident we're at be it a car fire, motor vehicle accident or anytime that we're out attending a scene we see from time to time where individuals are using cell phone to take pictures as a distracted driver. We do not want to see individuals using a cell phone when passing these incidents."

Thevenot adds if you're in the way of where EMS, Police or Fire have to be at, you're part of the problem not the solution.

"We're trying to get other response vehicles in there at times, perhaps we need additional equipment to be on scene it does at times congest the area where we're trying to get into. If you could just leave that area I know people are curious of what is going on but it does slow us down at times if individuals are doing activities such as that."

Questions, comments, or story ideas? Email us at news@okotoksonline.com