Nelson Fire Rescue joined a multi-agency prescribed burn and training exercise today, Wednesday, October 9, near Svoboda Road.
In collaboration with the Regional District of Central Kootenay and BC Wildfire Services, this training provides the opportunity for different teams to work together in a non-emergency situation, to build relationships and learn new equipment, so in the event of a real incident they are properly prepared.
“BC Wildfire is training with our members on proper ignition techniques so that we can conduct these burns on our own later on if we want to.” said Jeff Hebert, Fire Chief Nelson Fire Rescue.
“We have a variety of different pumping evolutions. We’re pumping with a tender, we have a water supply set out of a creek using Mark III pumps. We’re using just a variety of tools from different organizations.”
“We’ve circled the whole burn area with a wet line, so it’s everything that we would need to use in a large variety of different wildfire situations.”
This is the second multi-agency training operation performed this year, thanks to favourable weather conditions.
“We have a very narrow window in the fall to actually pull these burns off, so we are lucky we were able to get this burn window.” said Hebert,
“It’s very challenging to get these burns off when you have so many different agencies who have different responsibilities.”
“We’ve actually had to put this burn off twice in the past for various reason, so to get it concluded is very exciting.”
When completed, the area will see a reduction in wildfire risk through the removal of surface fuels and an increase in tree spacing.
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