The Cypress County Fire and Emergency Services department took part in fire suppression training in Elkwater. Photo: Cypress County

By Jesse Gill

Cypress County fire services prepare in case of Elkwater fire

Aug 13, 2024 | 6:17 PM

The Cypress County Fire Department held training with Alberta Wildfire in Elkwater recently to help with preparation if a fire comes near the hamlet.

Elkwater is under provincial jurisdiction so Alberta Wildfire is responsible for forest fires in the area. But Cypress County has a fire station on site to provide typical municipal fire responses.

Jason Linton, county fire chief and emergency services coordinator, said at Elkwater there is a pre-positioned fixed sprinkler system his fire fighters trained on.

“They have two pumps at the right beside the lake in Elkwater, and then they have two relay pumps. Then they have a sprinkler system all through the forest protection town site,” Linton said.

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“It’s to bring up the humidity. It’s not actually to extinguish a fire, but it will bring up the humidity to suppress the fire.”

The humidity from the system around Elkwater is designed to help slow the flames down and support in fighting the fire.

Alberta Wildfires would typically activate this system, but if those crews are already fighting a wildfire it allows the Cypress County Fire Department to provide backup.

Linton said they were already familiar with the locations of the pumps, but wanted to be more proactive to understand the pump system in an emergency situation.

Adding that the process starts with engaging pumps at the pond.

“We have to go up and open the valves and the relay pumps. Then we have to go through the whole woods on the trail, open up each sprinkler head, and then go back and fire up the relay pumps,” Linton said.

“It’s a little different than what we’re used to. It’s not our primary responsibility, but we would definitely want to support our neighbors in Elkwater wildfire in case, they are actively busy fighting a fire,” he added.

“The more people trained and more knowledge, the better.”

Linton adds that county firefighters are also trained on the mobile sprinkler system in Elkwater.

When the area around Elkwater has high hazard potential there are twice daily flights being done by Alberta Wildfire for patrols.

This is something Cypress County does weekly in other areas of the county through a partnership with HALO Air Ambulance.

Linton also mentioned that Cypress County firefighters responded to a large grass fire Monday afternoon at 2 p.m.

“We had a fire in between north of the hamlet of Walsh, Irvine and southeast of Schuler yesterday due to multiple lightning strikes,” Linton said.

“We were very fortunate that there was some rain right behind it. But before we did get the moisture, we burned about a thousand acres in about 40 minutes. So it was a fast moving fire,” he added.

“That one would get called in by some local landowners. They also responded with some agricultural firefighting equipment that a lot of ranchers and agriculture community has. As soon as we got the call, we dispatched five stations right off the bat with 22 people at the peak.”

Aerial patrols were completed Tuesday to look at the site of the fire from an overhead view through that partnership with HALO.

“Most fires we have, we do monitor our best to ensure that the fire’s out. A couple of weeks ago, we had a fire in Irvine and we actually reached out to Alberta Wildfire and they came in support with a drone and thermal imaging,” Linton said.

“Sometimes gets into the root system, we do have moisture on top, high winds can dry stuff out and rekindle a fire, even a couple of weeks after the original fire,” he added.

“We’re constantly monitoring fires that we have gone to ensure that we’re not going back for rekindling of it.”