Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 26/98) - A firefighter is listed in stable condition after suffering a heart attack while battling a fire at the Giant mine site Friday afternoon.

Deputy fire Chief Mike Lowing said the fire department is not releasing his name. They have not been able to speak him with since he was admitted to hospital.

"The firefighter still remains in the intensive care unit of the hospital, but no one's really had a chance to get in to him yet because of his condition," said Lowing.

"He went up to one of the fire department staff at the scene of the fire and said he was having difficulty. We began treating him at the scene in the back of Engine 7 and called for an ambulance from the fire station to transport him to hospital."

The department responded to a report of a pipe box fire at 12:29 p.m. Friday at Giant mine.

Lowing said the fire was initially contained to a pipe box located at the entrance of Giant Mine's town site off Highway 4.

The pipe box is a wooden structure carrying metal pipes which supply services to various buildings on the site.

Workers had been conducting cutting operations on piping in the box earlier in the day as part of a relocation of the box and its contents.

"Upon arrival, firefighters found a substantial fire involving the pipe box working its way towards the buildings connected to the pipe box," said Lowing.

"Flying brands had ignited the roof of an adjacent building which housed the main electrical feed point for the town site. Fire crews attacked both fires, containing the forward movement of the flames within eight minutes."

After bringing the fire under control, firefighters opened up all the pipe boxes in the area to check for more fires, in addition to removing the burned portions of the roof from the building.

Fifteen firefighters staffing two pumpers, a tanker, two command units and a rescue truck responded to the fire, believed to have been caused by sparks from the cutting operation that smouldered for a long time.

Dave Power, senior safety supervisor at the site, said actual damages were far less than the original estimate of $50,000.

"We were actually in the process of removing a lot of that stuff, so there's very little replacement cost," said Power.

"We'll have to replace a water line to the exploration building which supplies a sprinkler system and domestic water. We estimate the damage to only be about $2,500."