Sundre residents who live in the northeast subdivision overlooking the grass field towards the municipality's wastewater treatment plant got front row seats to quite a show last week.
Sundre residents who live in the northeast subdivision overlooking the grass field towards the municipality's wastewater treatment plant got front row seats to quite a show last week.
Volunteer members of the Sundre Fire Department teamed up on Wednesday, May 3 with a wildfire crew from Alberta Agriculture and Forestry for an urban interface hazard reduction exercise, more commonly known as a prescribed or controlled burn. The scenario even involved three AT 802 water bombers that maintained a holding pattern before releasing their loads.
The joint training drill not only provided individual crew members with an opportunity to hone their skills, but also to improve the coordination among the different departments to enhance the effectiveness of their collaborative response in the event of an actual wildfire, said Aaron Townsend, an Alberta Agriculture and Forestry wildfire ranger based in Rocky Mountain House.
"It really improves our response and management of an actual fire," he said.
Additionally, the controlled burn also reduces the potential for a wildfire to sweep through Sundre, he said.
"It's important to create some fuel-free barriers between the forests and residential areas."
Almost 30 responders with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry worked in tandem with more than a dozen local volunteer firefighters from Sundre and Cremona throughout the duration of the prescribed burn, which started in the afternoon and went well into the evening.
"It went excellent on just about all accounts," said Townsend.
"The weather cooperated well with us."
Initially coping with variable winds earlier on during the drill, conditions later settled with the smoke being blown away from homes. Additionally, a lack of strong, gusting winds made the exercise much easier to predict and manage, he said.
Although the Sundre Fire Department has recently been busy responding to medical calls, carbon monoxide alarms as well as a few structure fires, Chief Marty Butts said last week there had not yet been any wild land or grass fires in the area.
"That kind of scares me," he told the Round Up.
"We're entering that (fire) season. Calls usually jump up as conditions dry up."
So the chief has been taking preventive, proactive steps to reduce the potential threat of wildfire. The department recently completed a controlled burn by Greenwood Park, which Butts hailed as a great success after a large portion of the area around the riverside campground was cleared of fuel sources.
And working last week with the wildfire crews also contributed to that overall effort to decrease the risk of wildfire with the added bonus of improving response times and efficiency, he said.
"Everybody wins — we get training, they get training," he said, adding any wrinkles are ironed out "for the real thing."
The fire chief also encourages residents to learn about the steps they can take to make sure their homes and properties are Fire Smart. Visit www.sundrefiresmart.com for more information.
