City officials are asking Calgarians to keep up their water-saving measures, as usage on the weekend rose as fire crews battled a two-alarm fire in the southeast.
Mayor Joyti Gondek said 462 million litres of water was used on Sunday, a rise of 22 per cent from the day before.
Fire crews had to use more than three million litres of water to extinguish a condo fire in Prestwick on Sunday night.
“Thanks to the water preservation… (and) the efforts of Calgarians to make sure that the reservoir levels were adequate, we were able to have the water that we needed to fight those fires,” said acting fire chief Deb Bergeson.
“We feared a large fire in a time of water restrictions”.
Calgary Emergency Management Agency chief Sue Henry said there was enough water available to fight the fire and support other essential services.
“This is a sober reminder on why our water conservation efforts are so important, as the water-saving efforts leave enough for critical uses such as fires and hospitals.”
“The crews could see the water usage as they were monitoring their reservoirs, but the system was stable and we were able to support the water required across the city,” added the city’s infrastructure manager Michael Thompson.
Gondek said repairs to the five hot spots on the water main system are still on track to be completed oy July 5.
With the Calgary Stampede set to start on the same day, the city said it’s working with its partners on contingency plans.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” said Thompson. “We still have a lot of work to do.”
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