Peace River Forage Assn reveals fire suppression project
Dubbed the Fire Wagon, the first of two Type-2 Structural Protection Units obtained for the Peace region, was unveiled at by the Peace River Forage Association last week, at Jack Thiessen’s ranch in Buick.
The fire suppression project, officially called the Training and Acquisition of Wildfire Response Equipment in Northeastern BC project, began about two years ago, according to Nadia Mori, coordinator with the Peace River Forage Association.
“We started working around wildfire fighting and prescribed fire to take away the fuel load before the wildfire comes,” said Mori.
“About two years ago when we did a wildfire school, in the discussion we identified pretty quickly that a big need is more infrastructure for farmers and ranchers to use because farmers and ranchers are going to want to go out and fight their fire.”
The Association applied for grants to acquire two state-of-the-art structural protection units – one for the North Peace and one for the South Peace – because state-of-the-art equipment comes with a hefty price tag, Mori said.
The fire wagons are 20-foot-long hard trailers, containing Mark 3 pumps which are used across the board in fighting wildfires, hoses, couplings, and sprinklers for infrastructure protection. They essentially contain everything a fire fighter could need while out fighting wildfires.
Funding for the project came from the Government of Canada under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, the Canadian Cattle Association and the BC Hydro Agricultural Compensation Fund. Funding for the SPUs themselves came from the Province of BC’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
In addition to the two fire wagons, the Association held six fire schools this spring, training 150 people on BC Wildfire approved courses through Northern FireWoRx and Dr. Sonja Leverkus from Fort Nelson.
“It’s no good if you have all this fancy equipment but it doesn’t go well because no one knows how to use it,” Mori said.
Through the training, participants were able to get the full package that they need to be qualified as an entry-level firefighter with the BC Wildfire Service. Mori said they plan to run the fire schools again in the spring. Further training will be available this fall and next fall, to learn equipment maintenance, cleaning after use.
As northeastern BC is a vast, remote and rugged area, and fire can go places that are hard for regular firefighting equipment to get to, these fire wagons are anticipated to prove very useful.
The goal is to provide support to emergency response personnel. Having the resources – the equipment, training and certification – to be able to help where they can when fires flare up. Being able to have such equipment, and people who know how to use it, will be valuable to residents of the Peace long into the future, especially as more people receive training.