ATHABASCA - With springtime looming and the last remnants of winter melting away, Athabasca County’s firefighters are gearing up and getting ready for another busy season.
Thanks to some grant money from the government, a variety of projects are underway to help get the county ready for the dual grass and wildland fire seasons.
“It’s that time of the year for us,” said county fire chief Travis Shalapay.
“This year is an exciting one for us because it’s the first year we’ve actually gotten back into the full swing of FireSmart programming.”
Shalapay said FireSmart, a federal and provincial program that provides resources for communities to help protect their homes against the dangers of wildfires, provides funding for the municipality to tackle a variety of projects it otherwise wouldn’t, including brushing near Caslan and extra training for the volunteers.
“FireSmart grants are great, they’re fantastic, and they take a lot of time and effort,” he said.
“It’s one of those things where we only bite off as much as we can chew.”
Part of the program is also community based; Athabasca County’s grant money can go towards projects on public land, but private properties are a no-go for the firefighters.
Instead, Shalapay stressed county residents should be practicing their own fire safety, including keeping their yards trimmed, making sure flammable materials like wood or chemicals are stored away from buildings, and planting fire-resistant fauna.
“It’s not typically a wall of flame that takes down properties,” said Shalapay.
“We see what’s called firebrands, which are basically embers, which are carried out in front of a fire by the wind or smoke and cause spot fires. Those spot fires are what take down a lot of properties.”
It can be hard to imagine moving a pile of firewood away from a building would make much of a difference in the case of a wildfire, but Athabasca County’s deputy fire chief Travis Krahn saw the difference even basic mitigation makes when he was in Jasper during last year’s fires.
“We spent hours mowing grass, cutting down shrubs and everything else around some of those properties and at the end of the day, we still lost some,” said Krahn.
“Some we definitely made a difference on, but it was very time consuming when we could have allocated resources to better protect other buildings.”
Taking the proper steps to protect property can come with added financial benefits as well. Beyond the obvious, insurance companies are starting to over reduced rates for communities able to prove they’ve taken substantial steps to protect their homes from fires.
“There’s only been a few notable cases of this happening so far, but it’s becoming more and more frequent. Insurance companies are facing large losses so they’re looking at what they can do to reduce their losses,” said Shalapay.
Constant Recruitment
The call is going out for more volunteer firefighters across Athabasca County’s rural fire stations — Athabasca and Boyle are both managed by their respective municipalities — as the volunteer base continues to age out.
“We’ve got a very heavy training calendar for the spring especially, and we’re building into the fall as well. Like any other volunteer organization, everybody’s struggling to get people,” said Krahn.
“The nice thing about this program is the training is provided for you free of charge, all the PPE and everything is free of charge. With the paid on-call program coming in, you’ll get paid to take the training, which is way better than going to college and paying to pay to get it.”
Shalapay said the program is open to anyone, not just volunteers who are looking to dive into the deep end and tackle structure fires.
“There’s no singular role; within every station, there’s many, many roles for different people. I’ve had retired housewives that don’t want to pull hoses and kick in doors, but they’re the ones who make some of the best vehicle extrication people coming out and being able to provide medical care,” said Shalapay.
“Sometimes, a person just holding a slow/stop sign on the highway frees up someone that can get right into the thick of it.”
Shalapay said the best volunteer firefighters are the ones with a strong work ethic, commitment, and is willing to learn.
“This stuff isn’t as simple as putting wet stuff on hot stuff. There’s a lot of science behind it, and 100 years of innovation and technology that really goes into what we do,” he said.
“There’s no cookie cutter volunteer because everyone brings their own attributes to the table and it takes a room of different people to come together to be a functioning fire department.”
