Clearwater County has successfully accessed $30,000 in provincial grant money to begin constructing a fireguard around Nordegg to enhance public safety wildfires mitigation.
The Community Fireguard Program (CFP) is run through the provincial FireSmart program and the Fire Resource Improvement Association of Alberta (FRIAA), and is made available to communities that are at risk of wildfire.
County officials clarify the money secured by the County is only for phase 1 of the CFP, which involves preliminary planning of the fireguard including plan creation, mapping, ground truthing and consultation.
Phase 2 and 3 of the CFP includes land clearing, stumping, debris disposal, fencing and seeding- all items required to have a fireguard plan in place.
Although Clearwater County is the applicant for the grant, officials say it is also working with partners at the Provincial Wildfire Management Branch in Rocky Mountain House.
Following receipt of FRIAA grant, officials say a Nordegg FireSmart Plan was drafted by Alberta Wildfire staff, and includes FireSmart project components, based on recommended priority areas.
A ‘fireguard’ is not necessarily a circle around the community as one might imagine, says Christine Heggart, director of planning and emergency services for Clearwater County.
In the case of the Nordegg draft FireSmart plan, Heggart says it could be described as a combination of science-based mapping of factors such as topography (mountains vs. trees), fuel types (tree and plant species), previous wildfires, predominant weather patterns (likely direction of fire travel), and overall risk for the area.
Along with the ongoing work with the Alberta Wildfire team to create FireSmart plans, Heggart adds the County has full time and paid on call fire service members who are trained for structural firefighting and structure protection.
Additionally, Heggart says the County has equipment and resources available to respond to wildland urban interface (WUI) fires.
WUI fires are defined as those where the forest meets populated areas.
The team is so well-versed in WUI in fact, says Heggart, they assisted the province in creating the firefighter training curriculum related to fighting those fires. The WUI team also travels across the province to train municipal fire services and deploys as a provincial resource when needed for wildfire support.
As Clearwater County is a large response area, John Liadis, fire chief for Clearwater Regional fire Rescue Services says it works diligently with community members in education to reduce wildfire risk, as well as regular assessments.
Liadis adds, two members of Clearwater Regional Fire Rescue Services have been deployed to fight fires in the Jasper area following the blaze that devastated the community.
Click here to find out more about the FireSmart program.
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