A leak in the Weyburn General Hospital's steam heating system tripped the sprinkler system and led to an evacuation of the hospital's third floor on Saturday evening, as the Weyburn Fire Department checked out the building. The damages have now caused the hospital's operating room to be temporarily closed.

Fire Chief Denis Pilon said the call came in around 8:45 p.m., as the sprinkler system was tripped and turned on. As a result, the fire fighters treated the incident the same as if there were a fire at the hospital, he added.

"The steam pipe had a pinhole leak, and steam was spraying directly onto a sprinkler head, which set off the sprinkler system and set off the alarms. Staff reacted promptly and started the evacuation," said Chief Pilon.

The fire crew spent much of their time using a squeegee to clean up the water and prevent any water damage to the building, he added. The Sun Country Health Region reported on Tuesday morning that the water leaked down into the OR on the second floor below and caused damages.

Any emergency surgical procedures are now being redirected to other facilities. If the closure remains for a few days, elective surgery may also need to be cancelled.

"We had the situation well in hand a couple of hours after the leak," said Cal Tant, president and CEO of Sun Country. He said some patients were evacuated to other locations in the hospital as a safety precaution, and were returned to their beds an hour later.

Asked if it took a while to figure out what had triggered the system to go off, Chief Pilon said, "It took a little while. We went through the procedure like we would have with a real fire, by the book."

The department had a total of 13 personnel out with four trucks, while city police and RCMP cordoned off Second Street and First Avenue for a wide radius around the hospital. The fire crews were back in the hall by about 10:30 p.m.

Sun Country commended their staff and the outside agencies for their well-coordinated response to the situation. "They did a great job," said Tant.

The fire fighters had two other fires on the weekend, including a small grass fire on Sunday night south of Griffin, and an unattended pot in a home on Friday night. In the latter fire, a pot had been left on a stove in a home on Park Avenue, filling the home with smoke. The incident was handled quickly with the smoke cleared out of the building, and no smoke or water damages resulted.

The grass fire was started by lightning six miles south of Griffin, and on Monday it flared up again, forcing the Weyburn firefighters to be on the scene for the entire afternoon until about 5:30 p.m. No buildings were damaged, and the fire mostly was contained in grass, brush and manure piles.