6/20/2023 0 Comments Affinity publisher spread columnsThe Flat Top Complex Wildfire Review, a report released in 2012, recommended the government hire additional wildfire rangers and crews for doing sustained action on wildfire complexes, while commencing firefighter training earlier in April to prepare for large-scale wildfires in May. In fact, they’ve ignored expertise generated from historical wildfire events that built up and bolstered Alberta Wildfire’s effectiveness. We want experts in the actual field to actually say how we should actually fight fires.”īut the UCP have done anything but listen to wildfire experts. Then-agriculture and forestry minister, Devin Dreeshen, told the CBC, “We don’t want politics getting in the way of how we fight fires. They also decommissioned 26 fire towers, one-fifth of the province’s lookout detection program. In November, 2019, they slashed the Rappel Attack Program (RAP), a 40-year-old program that trained firefighters to propel from helicopters into remote areas. Three years later, the United Conservative Party (UCP), despite the severity of the 2019 fire season in Alberta, with multiple northern and Indigenous communities affected by the Chuckegg Creek and McMillan wildfire complexes, subsequently deepened those cuts. The NDP cut $15-million from the budget in 2016. ![]() Many of the managers and rangers were former firefighters who had decades of on-the-ground experience.Ī series of government cutbacks and defunding, however, has seriously damaged Alberta Wildfire’s ability to prevent and respond to wildfires. Most of my neighbouring tower workers had, on average, double that. Firefighter crew leaders often had more than seven years of experience. More than a system, Alberta Wildfire was a culture of individuals called to the line of wildfire response, people who lived and breathed for “fire season,” who planned and sacrificed their lives around it. Experience can only be achieved in a system where people feel valued, fairly compensated, and have the opportunity to learn and grow within the organization. Experience results in a faster, more efficient delivery of wildfire detection, assessment and management. Experience is what keeps communities safe from wildfires and firefighters safe on the fire line. In the world of wildfire management, experience matters. The firefighters had protected a nearby community from the fires. ![]() Within a few hours, there was no trace of smoke. The system worked so effectively because the people within it had built up multiple seasons of experience in their respective roles. Multiple crews landed to work the fire from the ground. I watched tankers hit the flames with red clay retardant to box the fire in. Within minutes, the wildfire was confirmed. A radio dispatcher answered and dispatched firefighting crews, manned up at a neighbouring location, and tankers toward the location of the fire. The tower to my east, manned by a veteran lookout, or “lifer” as we call them, reported the locations of the fires to the district’s duty officer. More impressive than the rate of spread of the wildfires, however, was the speed at which Alberta’s firefighting response system was triggered into action. ![]() Grassfires can race at the speed of 25 kilometres an hour. The fires were caused by sparks cast from the friction of a train braking along the tracks and catching in the cured grass. Within minutes, not one, but four giant columns of smoke exploded. In 2016, my first season, on my fourth day on the job, I witnessed a grassfire take off in the scorching hot, bone-dry conditions of early May. I worked for Alberta Wildfire for seven years as a lookout observer, climbing a 100-foot tower and watching for smoke from April to September. Trina Moyles is the author of Lookout: Love, Solitude, and Searching for Wildfire in the Boreal Forest.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |