Samoa Peninsula Fire ministry’s quick respond to two vegetation fires

By Rienaia Toleafoa

It was a significant vegetation fire as it was so big that two separate vegetation fires occurred in two different places.

“It’s unclear what caused them,” she says as all of the smokes were billowing in the air.

“I did hear that there is possible down power lines and there’s a line that appears to be on fire,” she says.

“I did see some red lights over at the other vegetation fire which appears to possibly be vehicles of emergency personnel,” she says.

In her video, she continued to shoot the scene while she was going in touch to base with some of the staff back at the studio to find out what information they knew of at that hour. Literally there was no one there for her to ask.

She was tentative what kind of sight of business this was, as it was strange to have had two separate vegetation fires at the sight that are just so far apart in distance. “There’s literally the street, blocking the two fires,” she says.

There was a lot of smoke in the sky on the night of the fire incident, as it was even cold. Luckily there was also the full moon to help light it up the night.

One of the two fires was located at a place called the Vance Avenue in Bay Street, while the other was over at Fairhaven Business Park.

Workers from the soil mill who have a lot of raw material that they use to make soil, were still on sight of the incident and they witnessed saying, “We had a power outage in our break room over here at the Fox Farm warehouse. I think that’s prior to what initiated it. We don’t know exactly about the power outage, but the light came back on and we were working outside at our piles. So as just on the way out, all of a sudden we looked over and started seeing the smoke and the flames.”

Furthermore, they suspected that the power outage could’ve been coinciding as to how one of these fires started.

Nazy didn’t know who to speak to at this hour and it might just be Humble Bay Fire.

All that was known was the fact that a report of down lines was received and that several engines here on scene. Among them included the Samoa Fire Peninsula Rescue vehicle.

“I have not heard any reports of any injuries, thankfully. I have not seen an ambulance or anything like that, so that’s some good news there,” she continues.

“There weren’t any road closures on scene,” she continued. “It’s so dark that I didn’t see exactly which fire vehicles were here. But I imagine it’s Samoa, since we are in Samoa,” she says.  

The smoke seemed to dissipate as Nazy said that she didn’t feel so much of it in her lungs any longer.

“You can never be too safe with all of these towers, poles and pillars. Especially the power poles that were just reported to be down earlier that you just don’t know when you come into a situation like this,” she says.

The situation appeared to have been quickly handled of under control as Nazy made her move to reach out to her contacts and also to the Samoa Fire and find out what they think caused it.

“It’s just odd for such strange activity for a Friday the 13th for a full moon night, to have two vegetation fires across the street from each other,“ she says.

Over an interview with Nazy, battalion chief Joel Smith for Samoa Peninsula Fire ministry: “So we got a report of a call about a down power line with a vegetation fire,” he says.

He continued, “When the first unit arrived on scene, they discovered that there was a vegetation fire but they also found that there was a second fire with a down power line.”

The scene of the second fire was at Fox Farm area while the scene of the first fire was at a different property.

The issue of the power lines that probably caused both fires is going to be under investigation right now. However they are connected and so there is a possibility that a surge could happen and caused a spark.

By Rienaia Toleafoa

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