Alberta firefighters buckle down with an uptick in fire calls

Firefighters fighting a fire (Photo Submitted)

The province of Alberta is starting to see an uptick of forest fires, with many municipalities seeing an upwards of two-call outs a day for wild land and structure fires.

Windspeaker Radio Network spoke with Derrick Forsythe, Wildfire information officer with Alberta Wildfire, says that this is most volatile time of the year for fires to start up within the season.

Forsythe goes on to talk about the staggering number of reported fires across the province dating back to January of this year, and urges Albertans to be careful while being out in the landscape.

In Lac La Biche county, the municipal fire department has received double of call outs a day responding to wildfire and structure fires in the last two weeks. With 72 response files for the month of April.

Windspeaker Radio Network spoke with John Kokotilo, Lac La Biche County Regional Fire Chief and Manager of Protective Services on the crews state of dealing with the increase in fire calls in the community.