Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Grey Wolf
Bushrat, that is what fire towers and Smoke Jumpers are equipped to do. They were strategically placed throughout Alberta with a Chopper to hit them fast and hard. Someone decieded to save a few $$ and let Rocky, Drayton, Edson, Hinton, Whitecourt, Slave Lake, Fox Creek, High level, and Valleyview forest fires burn their communities.
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Myself and several others on here were evacuees during the Drayton fire. That fire shouldn't have happened at all. A week before that fire a small fire got started 7 miles southeast of town as the crow flies, local helicopter jumped on it, dumped a dozen buckets on it supposedly extinguishishing it. Gov't fire officials showed up after, dropped the ball and failed to see that it was monitored. Several days later it got hot and windy, the fire restarted, roared to life, crossed two highways, a mile apart, down into the river bottom, jumped the river and up the hill across another highway, they got it stopped from getting into town at the ring road on the south edge of town, fire carried on around and past the town. The fire went 7 miles to town from it's origin in about 6 hours.
Friend of mine lives a mile or so from where the fire restarted, had the majority of his 1/4 section burned, lost his barn, a few outbuildings, cars and farm machinery. Local oil service companies responded on their own with water cannons, tank trucks, cats, hoes, etc., saved his and his dads homes. If it wasn't for them he would have lost it all. The entire town full of equipment mobilized to fight fire. Fire officials ordered them to stand down while those same officials stood around on their phone and radios while the fire spread, most provincial crews were fighting fires elsewhere Anyway those locals and their equipment backed off, snuck away and went and saved numerous rural homes in the area surrounding town.
I agree we could use better provincial firefighting capabilities and more manpower. When conditions are right and a bunch of big fires start in the same time frame they are spread too thin.
My opinion is that there are many companies with equipment, especially in oil towns that could respond and put the damper on many of these fires well before Provincial fire crews can respond, in most cases too late. But they are not allowed. I think the gov't should pay to train employees of these companies, certify their equipment and operators, sanction them as emergency first responder fire fighters, in coordination with provincial fire officials. The fire that burned around Drayton should never have been allowed to cross the first highway, then a second, then jump the N.Saskatchewan river and then jump another major highway. The ball was completely dropped and it wasn't because the fire couldn't be fought, the gov't wouldn't allow locals to fight it.
Back in the day fire officials would go to bars, restaurants, anywhere they could find men and equipment to fight fires. Not allowed anymore.