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July 22, 2015
Inside Prepare your property for fire Homes built near forests and grasslands in the Okanagan need to be groomed to reduced the chance of wildfire taking them out. ...............................
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Get ready Tickets for Shania Twain’s Rock This Country tour date in Kelowna go on sale this Friday. ...............................
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CONTRIBUTED
LAKE COUNTRY fire chief Steve Windsor talks to staff members of the District of Lake Country, putting them through a training session in the event they need to be
Fishing closures
called in to help during this fire season.
Southern Interior rivers including the Kettle and West Kettle are closed to fishing until Sept. 15 ...............................
▼ WILDFIRE SEASON
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Flyers ■ Coopers ■ Home Depot ■ Jysk Linen & Furniture ■ Rona ■ Safeway ■ Shoppers Drug Mart
District staff trained to lend a hand in a fire KEVIN PARNELL With an earlier start to the fire season than normal and still at least six weeks of hot weather to come, the Lake Country Fire Department has taken steps to train some municipal employees on working with the fire department, should there be manpower shortages. Fifteen employees from the Lake Country parks, utilities and roads departments took a one-day training session with the Lake Country Fire Department last week, learning
how the fire department works together to fight fires and how they may be called in to help. Lake Country deputy fire chief Brent Penner stressed that the district crews would not be called in to fight fires on the front line, but could be used in a mop-up role on one fire, if fire crews were called to another fire at the same time. “Right now it’s kind of like all-hands-on-deck in the province,” said Penner. “We are getting a little bit of a reprieve right now but the fire season isn’t over. We have mutual aid
agreements in place with Kelowna, West Kelowna and Peachland but they are not going to be here in two minutes. These guys are right here in the community.” Penner said staff have been trained mostly on safety and working in a team environment. When firefighters are working a fire, there are very clear lines of communication of who is in charge and who is doing what. He says it’s different than what the staff may be used to in their regular jobs, so they were shown how the fire department
line of communication works. “We wanted them to know how to work with our team, that they stay safe and they know how we operate and what we think about so they know they aren’t being thrown into a big fire where there is a lot of risk,” he said. “Our intent would be to only put them in scenarios where we need manual labour and the fire has been knocked down. But there are still things they need to be aware of. SEE TRAINING A3
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It’s about being aware of your surroundings, keeping a lookout of what’s going on, making sure you and your partner are safe.” Brent Penner, LCFD deputy chief