Firefighter recruits prepare for Alberta’s wildfire season

New firefighters have been training for weeks and are ready for when wildfires spark in Alberta. CTV News Edmonton's Curtis Goodrum reports.

Firefighter recruits were in Hinton Monday preparing for Alberta’s upcoming wildfire season.

Alberta Wildfire began the recruiting process in November where they go through fitness testing. Recruits then go to the Hinton Training Centre where they receive practical wildfire training.

“We do a good amount of in-classroom practical stuff, and then we get out here, put it all together, get a bunch of hands-on experience, and they set us up with the best success to actually get out there and fight fires during the season,” said Danielle Busato, a crew leader for Lac La Biche detachment.

Busato has five years of firefighting experience in other provinces but says the nature of the job is always unpredictable.

“There’s always something that comes up unexpectedly, but that’s why we do this training, to train for those hazards that come up, and do the best we can to assess those situations,” Busato said.

New recruits put out mock fires and flew in helicopters to get some hands-on experience.

“It’s a pretty intense experience … You’re learning a lot in a short period of time,” said Emma Scullion, a training specialist at the Hinton Training Centre. “But ultimately, they’ll go out to their crews and they’ll continue to train and become more experienced firefighters throughout the next few years.”

Wildfire season forecast

While much of the province saw elevated levels of snowfall over the winter months, resulting in a slower start to wildfire season in the north, southern parts of Alberta are already drying out.

“The southern parts of Alberta have now dried out and are producing a bit of a fire danger for us, so we are focusing a lot of our efforts there,” said Melissa Story, an information officer with Alberta Wildfire.

Story added that it’s still a bit too early to tell what wildfire season will bring.

“The big determining factors for us when it comes to spring wildfires are how the snow melts and how much rain we receive in the springtime,” Story said. “We’re waiting to see what those conditions look like, but we’re still preparing for whatever the fire season is going to bring our way.”

Crews have been working to mitigate grass fires in the south with Alberta Wildfire’s community hazardous fuels reduction program and hazard reduction burns around municipalities.

Wildfire season in Alberta started March 1 and goes until Oct. 31.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Curtis Goodrum