Valued at $137,000, the new wildland sprinkler system for Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services (LFES) is a new tool that could save lives.
“Before, for a larger event where we weren’t able to stop the front part of the fire, maybe 2011, 2012, those types of fires, this kind of addresses that missing link,” said Kevin O’Brien, a qualified officer with LFES.
The series of hoses stored within the trailer can stretch for nearly one kilometre, meaning they can create a wall of protection for residents on the outskirts of Lethbridge, or even surround specific locations.
“Something like the Helen Schuler Nature Centre, we could surround that if there was a wildfire event just to specifically protect that,” said Chris Jorgensen, a qualified officer with LFES.
By linking in with fire hydrants, the sprinklers attached to the hoses can provide a lot more water than your standard back garden water source.
“Each (sprinkler) will do about 100 or 150 feet of radius, so it covers quite a large area. The benefit of that is we can put fewer sprinklers down in a quicker timeframe and get more coverage,” said Jorgensen.
The surrounding communities will also be impacted by the arrival of the trailer.
“We can also use this system out in the county or for working with our rural partners. If we had a structure and they were just supplied by a dugout or they had a standing, static water source, we could set this up to draft from that and then encircle the property with sprinklers to create a wall of suppression for it.”
It’s a system that can stop, delay and seriously help crews battling out of control fires.
“We’re able to attack and extinguish (the fire) with our normal tools (after the sprinklers are deployed). It makes a big difference in adding something we didn’t have before,” said O’Brien.
LFES says residents can expect to see crews training with the new trailer as they familiarize themselves with the system. However, the tools are now fully operational and able to be deployed whenever called upon.