With Alberta's wildfire season just around the corner, the region's fire chiefs are reminding residents that they are going to require permits for burning.
Beginning March 1, a permit is required for all planned fires in Alberta's Forest Protection Area, which runs just north of Cold Lake and covers parts of the MD north of Bonnyville, with the exception of campfires.
“Over the past 10 years the ratepayers of the MD of Bonnyville have been very conscious of safe burning and it has significantly reduced the number of wild land fires that we've had to respond to,” said Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority Chief Brian McEvoy. “We're looking forward to another year where the people that live and work in the MD of Bonnyville take responsibility for fire safety seriously.”
The Fire and Prairie Protection Act defines the fire permit season as April 1 to Oct. 31, but for the past three years the province has started fire season a month early.
“I think because of the lack of snow that's been occurring throughout province, even though we do have a fair amount right now, the drying season is coming a lot sooner, so it's just to keep everybody thinking about due diligence,” said Cold Lake Fire-Rescue Chief Jeff Fallow.
He added, “Since the permitting processes have been put in place all year round we've actually been pretty fortunate that most people are keeping their yards clean and are burning properly, so over the last three or four years our call volume has been down quite a bit.”
According to McEvoy, the Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority's wildfire responses within the MD last year were just slightly above the 10-year average.
Across the province, however, there were 1,786 wildfires that burned more than 490,000 hectares, more than twice the 25-year average.
“There was a large fire on the Air Weapons Range last spring but most of the smoke here came from the fires in La Ronge, Saskatchewan,” McEvoy noted. “Within the MD we did pretty good…most of the large fires and the impact was in northern Alberta as opposed to north-central Alberta.”
Most of the burning within the MD takes place for land clearing, especially when new pipelines are being built or construction in rural areas.
“In the City of Cold Lake we're pretty fortunate because we only have approved recreational fire pits that are allowed, and as long as people follow the rules of those, we really don't have too many issues,” Fallow said.
He added, “Not always are fires started by human situations, sometimes there are lightning strikes and those type of things. For us, every season we get closer to, we get our trucks prepared with the appropriate wild land fire fighting kit that needs to go on.”
Over the last 10 years, Fallow said his department has gone from responding to three to four wild fires a day to 30 to 40 throughout a year.
“I think the permitting and just the people's diligence has been helping out,” Fallow noted. “If you are going to be doing any kind of burning, make sure you're following the rules and regulations and if there are conditions applied to it, usually it's winds and stuff like that, just makes you follow the rules on your permit.”
McEvoy added, “We're also reminding people that with the permits being effective March 1, which they have been for the last three years, any burning that they do before March 1 has to be completely extinguished by March 1 because we cannot issue permits on existing fires.”
Accelerating wildfire season preparations was one of the recommendations of the Flat Top Wildfire Complex Review that followed he 2011 Slave Lake area wildfires.
“By beginning one month early, we can more effectively monitor burning activities and also ensure that our firefighters are well prepared to respond quickly when wildfires are detected,” said Oneil Carlier, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry.
Training starts for wildfire crew members and leaders at the Alberta Agriculture and Forestry's training centre in Hinton, beginning in March.
Residents in the MD wishing to conduct any burning must obtain a permit from a fire guardian. There is no charge for the permit. For a list of MD fire guardians and contact information, visit: http://www.md.bonnyville.ab.ca/DocumentCenter/Home/View/946. You can contact your fire guardian to verify whether or not you're in the forest protection area.
