The cold and snowy weather has been creating havoc for drivers int he Foothills, leaving the Okotoks Fire Department busy with 18 calls over the past seven days.

Deputy Fire Chief Dwight Seymour says two of those eighteen calls were actual fires.

"It was another busy week for the Okotoks Fire Department with the weather we have been having. With both the cold and slippery conditions, we responded to 18 different incidents this last week." Seymour says "We responded to 4 motor vehicle collisions, five alarm system activations that resulted in false alarms, seven medical responses, and we had 2 that were fires."

Seymour says one fire was a controlled burn but the second was a motor home fire in a local campground.

There was one resident inside the motor home at the time of the blaze but he was alerted thanks to his smoke detector and made it out un-scathed.

Deputy Chief Seymour says the cold weather not only effects Okotoks residents, it also makes things harder for the Fire Fighters to respond to calls like the motor home fire, creating all sorts of hazards for them.

"A lot of the problems we deal with is obviously the freezing up of the water. Water comes from our pumps, goes through hoses, and then goes through nozzles and so at any point if we were stop that water flow in the temperatures we've been having we can freeze ups in any part of that."

Seymour says it creates physical hazards for the O.F.D as well causing slipping hazards and the most obvious cold weather related ailments such as hypothermia and frost-bite.

Obviously the coming week will be the polar opposite of the last with a chinook coming into the region Seymour and the men and women of the Fire Hall would like to ask that residents stay away from any ice surfaces other then specified outdoor rinks.

"They're inviting and kids want to be on them and out skating when there's warm weather, but the conditions can change drastically specially during times of a chinook and the warmer weather coming in."

This warning extends to the river, storm retention ponds and other un-monitored bodies of water in the area.

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