Starland County staff had a meeting at the Morrin Community Hall following a seven-hour long blaze that ultimately destroyed over half of the Starland County Office on Friday, May 25.
The fire began at approximately 5:00 a.m. where Morrin, Munson, Drumheller, and Rumsey Fire Departments were dispatched. EMS and RCMP were also at the scene.
The County has determined that another meeting will take place at the Munson Community Hall on Monday. Priorities include essential services like the fire departments, communications, and cemetery records, and the water system that is controlled by the county.
“We are still Starland County Strong,” said an emotional Shirley Bremer, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for Starland County, at the beginning of the meeting.
The structure sustained tremendous smoke damage. Trackhoes and backhoes were used to lift up the roof so more water could enter to battle the blaze.
At one point, the Village of Morrin was running out of water, so neighbours of the community stepped in to offer up their tanker trucks that were fully stocked. ATB Financial and Mountain View Credit Union provided water, sandwiches, cookies, pizza, and chips for all emergency services and county staff.
Before the meeting adjourned, Bremer confirmed their plans for the near future.
“Our engineers are already on board transferring our water system into their records. We have our engineers with a lot of our records that we can collect from them so they can run our SCADA (computer infrastructure) system,” said Bremer.
Occupational Health and Safety has been notified. 19 people work out of the county office.
A few places in Drumheller and area are being considered as a place for a satellite office. The Town of Drumheller offered their newly purchased Public Works Building, and ATCO Electric offered a large wing of their new shop. Both locations are in the industrial zone of Drumheller. Stettler and Delia also offered temporary spaces for them to stay in.
Updates will be released on the Starland County Facebook Page as more information is revealed.
mailphotos by Terri Huxley
