![]() ![]() "This is an assessment of wildfires that rappel crews were deployed to that there were no other feasible means of getting to," said one email from a government forester. They were forced to actually rappel into a fire about 23 times a year. Send an email to documents, from internal government communications, suggest that rappel crews were called out about 100 times annually between 20. ![]() How are the Alberta wildfires affecting you? We want to hear your story.However, documents obtained under Freedom of Information legislation and supplied to The Canadian Press suggest Dreeshen underplayed the importance of an aerial attack. That figure is based on the number of times rappelling skills were used in the average of more than 1,400 fires in Alberta from 2014 to 2018.ĭreeshen said at that time those figures suggest the rapattackers' skills are better used from the ground. Nearly 30,000 people are still out of their homes.Īt the time, Devin Dreeshen, then minister of agriculture and forestry, said those firefighters spend only two per cent of the time rappelling from helicopters, and spend the rest of the time fighting wildfires on the ground. The province's wildfire budget for 2019 was about $117 million.ĭuration 4:01 A brief window of wetter and cooler weather is allowing fire crews to tackle the dozens of wildfires burning across Alberta. "They told us the program had been eliminated," said former member Adam Clyne. That program once had 63 firefighters stationed around the province, including at Edson, Fox Creek and Lac La Biche - communities now threatened by one of the busiest early fire seasons in provincial history.īut that program was cut in 2019 by the United Conservative government. They also cleared landing spaces for other helicopters to bring in crews and gear. When one storm sparked several fires, they could extinguish them before they merged. Those firefighters were trained to rappel from helicopters to get at wildfires while they still only covered a few hectares. "We could have been difference-makers," said Jordan Erlandson, a former member of Alberta's Rapattack team. Former members of an elite Alberta wildfire-fighting crew say government budget cuts have left the province battling its current blazes short-handed. ![]()
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