LAC LA BICHE – People who attended a workshop at the Lac La Biche Heritage Society on March 24 received information about how to prepare for emergencies, while also learning about the FireSmart program and the Lac La Biche County emergency alerting system.
Mark Wiebe, Lyric Jesso, and Eli Sokorinski of Lac La Biche County Fire Services did the presentation on FireSmart and the emergency alerting system, and Jennnifer Gauthier, a health promotion facilitator with Alberta Health Services (AHS) spoke about emergency preparedness.
Fire Smart is administered in municipalities across Alberta and nationwide to teach homeowners how to protect their properties from the risk of wildfire.
“Any community that is fire smart is going to be a lot more resilient when wildfire does come through,” Wiebe said. “It’s just a matter of time before each community is impacted by wildfire.”
Through the FireSmart program, Lac La Biche County Fire Services conducts free home assessments and free wood chipping services for residents of the municipality.
To apply for a FireSmart assessment, people can call the Lac La Biche County office to get on the list.
When seniors get assessments done, the team responsible for conducting the evaluations walks them through the things they can do to make their properties more fire smart, explained Wiebe.
Since wildfires move in several different ways, there are different things to consider. The first way that wildfires normally impact a community are through the embers in the air. Embers can fall into ease troughs and get blown into little spots under decks that can then ignite houses.
“The other way is when the actual flame front comes through into your communit . . . If you have your lawn nicely trimmed, and your trees are limbed up to the point where the ladder fuels have been removed, then your property has a lot greater chance of surviving a wildfire,” he explained. “Ladder fuels” are vegetation such as shrubs, low-hanging branches and vegetation that enable fires to climb from the ground into tree canopies.
During the workshop, Lac La Biche County firefighter Lyric Jesso provided details about the Lac La Biche County emergency alerting system, which is an app that residents can download onto their phones to receive alerts.
Jesso explained that the app works in a similar way to the Alberta Emergency Alert System operated by the Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) but is more municipality-based.
Through the app, residents are alerted about such things as water main breaks, road closures, and snow ploughing.
Be prepared
Jennifer Gauthier spoke about emergency preparedness. When preparing for emergencies, seniors need to be aware of how they are going to react to the stress of the situation.
“They need to know their community . . . how the community’s going to react,” she said. “They need to know their neighbours.”
Regarding measures that can be taken to prepare for emergencies, Gauthier explained that seniors can make kits that are personal to them and set up communication plans with family members and friends.
When making emergency kits, there are general considerations that come into play, including having enough food and essential items such as can openers, along with clothing that is suitable for the weather.
“If you have pets, you want to make sure you have enough food and water for the pet . . . You [also] want to make sure you have enough water for yourself,” she said.
Another item that should be part of an emergency kit is a whistle.
“If you need to call for help, your voice will give out,” she said. Blowing three long blasts on a whistle is the universal emergency rescue signal.
Les Diachinsky, president of the Lac La Biche Heritage Society, was among the group that turned out for the workshop. According to Diachinsky, the event provided some important food for thought, including thinking about emergency kits and how to put them together.
“Nobody can tell us what our kit is and what we need . . . and we won’t complete it 100 per cent . . . [But] if we can get five per cent, 10 per cent, that’s 10 per cent more than we had before we came because we give it some thought now,” he said.
