Taber Fire Department helping assist in Drayton Valley

The town of Taber in SW Alberta is lending a helping hand to those impacted by wildfires in Drayton Valley. Taber Fire Chief Steve Munshaw says they sent crew and equipment up north to help protect Albertans from the devastating blazes.

“Taber right now has current type one engine up in Drayton Valley with four people on it. Basically what that looks like is a fire engine, normal structural fire engine with people able to work with forestry as well as urban interface. Taber’s also just been able to assist with our media relations person Meghan Brennan, and she has gone up as of this morning to assist the provincial operations center on that behalf. They’re working in the bush right now. Actually, yesterday they spent the entire day working with military as well as forestry and other units, cutting guard, using chainsaws, cutting- making line and putting sprinkler systems out in the area. So what the hope is they can surround the entire community with a nice sprinkler line and continue making those hotspots really small. And as the temperatures increase over the weekend, making sure those hotspots don’t turn into large fires.”

Earlier this week the City of Lethbridge deployed four firefighters to help assist on the Buck Creek Fire in Brazeau County near Drayton Valley. Staff from the city told us the firefighters will be on a three day deployment at which time the ongoing situation will be reassessed.