Time to train fire fighters for dry, hot summer

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Forest fire fighting training is taking place across Alberta, and Fox Lake in the Upper Hay Forest Area is no exception. Each spring trainees attend five-day fitness and safety courses in Fort Vermilion.

Gord Norrie, a forest protection technician in the Fort Vermilion Area office says, "Every spring we try to let the folks know if there are any changes in the (fire fighter training) program. In the fall we also . . . obtain any feed-back from the fire fighters about the previous summer's fires. This year we've been taking chain saw training and first aid training because we want to at least have two members in the Type 3 emergency crew trained in First Aid."

He adds, "In Fox Lake we get the guys ready for the upcoming fire season. We cannot take any of the guys on the fire line without proper training. The reason we do this first thing in the spring is that we are finding that if we get some fires and then get two or three crews out of Fox Lake to train them and all this kind of stuff, it really hold things up," said Norrie.

For information about courses contact Mike Lutz at Fort Vermilion: (780) 927-3235.