Preparing for a busy wildfire season, an inside look at wildland firefighter training Achi-News

After days of classroom training, a new group of wildfire-fighting recruits put their skills to the test at the Alberta wildfire training center in Hinton, Alta.

“We’re going to be testing the skills they’ve learned in the classroom, separately throughout the week, and putting it all into a scenario similar to what fireworks will look like real,” Alberta Wildfires information officer Josee St-Onge said.

On Monday, members of the media were invited to join a training exercise, involving staged forest fires, to see what it takes to fight wildfires. About 45 recruits and coaches took part.

“So they will come to this site by helicopter, grab their staged wildfire gear where they will practice setting up pumps, setting up pipes, extinguishing a fire perimeter and checking for hot spots in a way that imitating what real fireworks look like,” said St-Onge.

The training covers all aspects of firefighting, even including learning how to get in and out of a helicopter safely, as in the case of Helitack crews, who are usually the first firefighters at a wildfire scene and who n work mainly to limit it.

“These are all new recruits who have never worked as firefighters,” St-Onge said. “Many of our maneuvers take place in a helicopter so that’s what they’re practicing today – getting out of the helicopter safely, unloading their gear, getting it to the right location. They are split into smaller groups to mimic what our crews look like.”

“We use toilet paper to simulate the perimeter of the fire,” said Kyle Fitzpatrick, wildfire training specialist. “The bonfire simulates what would happen in the middle of a wildfire if it had the chance to sit for a couple of hours.”

The recruits will also learn how to operate the equipment and machinery needed to fight fires.

DeeDee Schultz, a member of Helitack, previously worked as a distributor in Calgary and said she joined last year and that her new career has been rewarding.

“It’s very exciting to be the first on the scene,” Schultz said. “At first, I was really nervous, but once we got into it, it was exciting. We took our time so we could understand everything we were doing.”

Once his training is complete, Schultz said he will work out of the Whitecourt forest preserve.

This year, St-Onge said there was more emphasis on firefighting during the night.

“Generally fire behavior at night is subdued because it is cooler and there is more humidity. We want to take more advantage of that downtime to continue working on the wildfires,” added St-Onge. “We want to take advantage of that time when there is less fire activity so we can make progress.”

The province will also use three helicopters with night vision capabilities to fight fires this year.

“They can drop buckets of water and they can use their night vision goggles to see where hot spots are,” St-Onge said.

Once the firefighters have completed their training, they will continue to learn on the job with an experienced firefighting mentor.

The province says it is on track to have 800 firefighters in place for this wildfire season, along with 300 seasonal staff members.

Alberta Wildfire says about 50 percent of its staff are returning for another season, leaving another 50 percent, or about 400, to be trained.

“We are preparing for what could be a challenging season. At the moment the conditions are dry and warm. There is not much snow,” said St-Onge. “We expect the north-west part of the state to experience the greatest fire danger.

“Right now we’re at a critical point in the spring where the amount of rain we get is going to make a huge difference.”

Albertans interested in signing up to help fight fires in their area are invited to do so this season by filling out a form on the province’s website. The volunteers must follow safety training. The province is particularly interested in residents who have experience using heavy machinery.

Alberta’s wildfire season officially began on March 1.

Training of new firefighting recruits will continue through April.

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