After the county listed the wildfires burning near Teepee Creek and Valhalla as officially “under control” County of Grande Prairie fire officials have shared some insights into key takeaways from the region’s first significant wildfires of the season.
Over the winter and early spring, governments at both the municipal and provincial levels made it clear that wildfire prevention and fighting was a top priority going into the warm season, especially after last year’s significant wildfire season.
County Fire Chief Trevor Grant says the additional resources directed to wildland firefighting has proven to be a success as additional crews and equipment made all the difference in bringing the blaze under control so quickly.
“We were all very aware of the conditions we were coming into spring with,” he says. “The additional resources that were announced through the provincial support as well as county council providing additional ability to up staff in our rural response stations through peak burn periods, it all really did come together.”
The month of May saw two significant wildfires- one near Teepee Creek and another near Valhalla and Chief Grant credits the additional resources to the fire crews’ quick response time.
“Being prepared and being ready this spring I think really paid off for us,” Grant says.
“We were able to get crews and resources to both events in very short order, and we were able to integrate quite quickly with Alberta Wildfire,” he says. “We had wildfire resources on both fires at the same time, [and] once the Valhalla wildfire was brought under control, we were able to clear up some of our resources.”
When it comes to the comparison between this year and last year, Chief Grant says it could be too early to say for sure; however, the sheer volume of wildfires ravaging northwestern Alberta in 2023 was simply not a factor this time around.
“I think the biggest difference between last spring and this spring is last spring, the lightning storm went through and we had multiple fire starts across the northwest region and this year, we’re not dealing with that sheer volume of fires across the entire northwest,” he says. “[In the] beginning of May last year, there were fires in essentially every rural municipality from High Level down to the MD of Greenview, so our mutual aid partners that we normally call on were already busy with their own events and weren’t able to come help us.”
Overall, the fire chief indicates that the wildfires near Teepee Creek and Valhalla could be seen as a wake-up call for residents in the region, reminding residents to continue maintaining diligence and awareness as the Peace Country moves into the summer.
