Alberta preparing for ‘the worst’ ahead of wildfire season
Global News
Alberta Wildfire officials say they are preparing to be ready for 'the worst that can happen' ahead of this year’s wildfire season, following last year’s record-breaking result.
Alberta Wildfire officials say they are preparing to be ready for “the worst that can happen” ahead of this year’s wildfire season, following last year’s record-breaking result.
Alberta Wildfire provided a tour of its coordination centre in Edmonton Monday afternoon, to showcase how staff are preparing for this year’s wildfires.
Workers at the centre are tasked with everything from coordinating person-power, equipment and accommodations, to prioritizing the movement of air tankers and other firefighting aircraft across Alberta.
“Probably the number one thing is having those resources ready and trained and in place for the beginning of the fire season,” said Cory Davis, manager of wildfire predictive services with Alberta Wildfire.
In 2023, 1,092 wildfires burned an unprecedented 2.2-million hectares of land in Alberta.
So far this year, 40 wildfires have sparked in Alberta burning about 300 hectares. As of this time last year, there were 14 wildfires that burned about three hectares of land.
“That is why we are preparing as much as possible,” said Christie Tucker, information unit manager with Alberta Wildfire.
“We are just ensuring that we have all of the information where, we know where the fire danger is going to be elevated, we have additional crews, we’ve been told we have the resources we need and we’re going to make sure that we’re putting them in the right areas so that we’re ready to respond when we need to.
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