The Government of Alberta has developed a Wildfire Reporting Tool and is hosting an information and training session to teach municipalities how to use the new tool.
The Government of Alberta is responsible for mitigating wildfire risk and maintaining the safety of Albertans. To help fulfill that mandate, Alberta Wildfire is introducing a reporting tool to help municipalities and Alberta Wildfire share wildfire information outside of the Forest Protection Area. The municipal wildfire reporting tool will help gather more robust information about wildfires across the province, while enhancing Alberta’s emergency response and supporting the direction of the Emergency Statutes Amendment Act.
The municipal wildfire reporting tool seeks to strengthen provincial wildfire response by making municipal wildfire information available to the Alberta Wildfire Coordination Centre and local Forest Area fire centres.
Tracking this information will help your municipality build a wildfire history record which can assist with future prevention work and can provide statistics for additional resource planning.
Who does this apply to?
All rural municipalities are required to provide information regarding wildfires within municipal boundaries that are located outside of the Forest Protection Area. This is an existing requirement under the Forest and Prairie Protection Act.
How will it work?
Alberta Wildfire is asking municipal partners to actively contribute to the provincial wildfire dataset. Municipalities will have ongoing access to the reporting tool. This tool will provide valuable information to inform the province’s wildfire response. It will support strategic decisions, including the deployment or prepositioning of firefighters in specific areas of the province.
Municipalities will receive unique logins for data entry. Training will be provided.
The current mutual aid request process for requesting assistance will not change.
Training & Information Session
Join Alberta Wildfire for an information and training session for the new tool on March 24 at 1:30 p.m. To register and/or learn more, please reach out to wildfireinfo@gov.ab.ca or 780-420-1968. Additionally, if you have any questions about reporting a wildfire or how to use the new tool, please reach out to your local Alberta Wildfire Prevention Officer.
Bezawit Lemma
Policy and Research Analyst
825.319.2280
bezawit@rmalberta.com
Warren Noga
Manager of Policy and Research
825.319.2285
warren@rmalberta.com