'A team effort': A look at Alberta's wildfire reservist program

As wildfire activity continues to flare up in Alberta, so does interest in the province's wildfire reservist program.

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The program was created last year after an outpouring of support from Albertans asking to help. It offers training and paid work for eligible volunteers wanting to assist with the wildfire response.

"Our numbers definitely went up when Fort McMurray was evacuated earlier this year," said Melissa Story from Alberta Wildfire. "We've also seen that increased number in the Edson forest area now with support for Jasper."

Candidates must pass a fitness test and go through training. Story said hundreds of people have applied to help so far this year, but only a few so far have been hired.

While the role the reservists play is important, they shouldn't expect to find themselves on the front lines.

"Wildland firefighting is a very dangerous job that requires some rigorous training," Story said. "Those folks that do put their hands forward to be part of the wildfire reservist program, unfortunately, are not deployed to the front line."

"We lost a life last week of a young man during the wildfire operations, and that's a catalyst for us to be all reminded of the risks that happen here," said Parkland County Fire chief Brian Cornforth.

Cornforth said Parkland County Fire, with the help of Alberta Wildfire, provided basic training to some county staff and advanced training to its own firefighters this year.

"We actually trained our agricultural team, our team in parks," he added. "They were able to do mop up … that gave us another bit of capacity within the county to support those wildfire operations."

Other ways reservists can help that don't involve actually dousing flames include logistics, heavy equipment operation, or general support like maintaining equipment and rolling hose.

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"Support roles are just as important as our front-line positions," Story said. "For every firefighter that we have out there, they need an army of people behind them that are helping to get them prepared for the day."

"We can't fight that fire on the front line without all the 10 people that are behind that single person on the front line," Cornforth said. "It's a team effort any time we have a major wildfire."

To learn more or to sign up, visit the Government of Alberta website. 

As of Thursday evening, there were 111 wildfires in Alberta's fire protection area, with 13 of those classified as out-of-control.