LAKELAND - The provincial "Green" zone covers more than 80 per cent of the Lakeland area, and where that land meets sprawling urban development is a continuing hot-spot of study for municipal and provincial fire officials.
That space between urban sprawl and forest or grassland areas is called the Wildland-Urban Interface, or WUI to fire crews in the area.
Last month, municipal firefighters from Lac La Biche County, St. Paul County, Boyle, Athabasca and Beaver Lake Cree Nation were part of a three-day WUI training session. The training was held in several locations across the rural Lac La Biche community with instruction from the Alberta Emergency Management Agency and a provincially-trained structure protection unit (SPU).
Fire crews from across the region took part in active scenarios duplicating structure fires and wildland fires threatening rural homes and neighbourhoods.
Lac La Biche County's Regional Fire Chief John Kokotilo said the hands-on scenarios gave firefighters a real feeling of what can happen.
"Training included introduction to SPU and wildland firefighting equipment and apparatus, triage scenarios, implementation of sprinkler systems, in actual practical scenarios," said Lac La Biche County's Regional Fire Chief John Kokotilo.
Most of the scenarios were conducted near Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park, and in the rural Bonesville subdivision about five kilometres south of the Lac La Biche hamlet.
With such a large portion of the region covered by wood and wildland fuel sources — and with the start of what is looking like a very dry fire season, Kokotilo said the WUI training is essential.
The WUI training also shows municipal fire departments how to partner and assist provincial wildland fire crews if fires threaten rural subdivisions and homesteads. Those areas, called 'yellow zones' are often included in mutual aid agreements between the province and the municipalities.
"We can request Alberta Forestry, Parks, and Tourism for mutual aid assistance for large wildfires that occur in the County’s yellow zone. An example of that is the recent Hylo-Buffalo Lake Wildfire that occurred in 2021," he said.
