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Smoky Lake Fire Department
At October meeting and practices members hosted fire extinguisher orientations for the public and Town of Smoky
Lake staff as part of Fire Prevention Week. More than 20 members of the public and 8 Town staff completed the fire
extinguisher orientation and were able to extinguish a fire using a fire extinguisher. Also fire members cleaned fire
trucks, equipment and were shown how to leave the fire pumps dry when going to calls in cold conditions.
The Department helped out pumpkin fair organizers by washing the gazebo for the farmers market, parking cars for
the Show and Shine and providing traffic control once the pumpkin fair was done.
The Department helped the Curling Rink and Ag Society by washing the floors with fire trucks so the ice could be
installed.
Unit 459 front mount turret is having electrical issues and working with Fire Garry Fire Truck to resolve the problem.
Vilna Fire Department
At October meetings and practices the members cleaned and organized the trucks as well completed equipment
checks. Units 401 and 451 fire pumps were drained and are dry for cold weather operations.
Unit 419 has a leaking ball valve and a new ball valve was ordered and installed.
Unit 451 commercial vehicle inspection was completed.
Unit 429 had a vibration in the front end at highway speeds. Wheels were inspected and pressure washed to clean
all the mud and debris out.
Waskatenau Fire Department
Units 403 and 462 fire pumps were drained and are dry for cold weather operations.
Smoky Lake County Emergency Services
Attended the Fall Sustainable Resources Development (SRD) meeting in St. Paul and presented to the group on the
2015 year for the Smoky Lake Region.
Attended the Jubilee Insurance Presentation on Volunteer Firefighters Insurance (VFIS).
Helped Public Works Dept with washing out a culvert that had a beaver dam inside of it.
Presented to Village of Waskatenau Council on the Medical First Responders Program.
Completed Reports for Priddle and Gibbs regarding legal issues.
Completed and submitted grant applications for the Fire Service and Emergency Preparedness Grant and Enbridge
Safe Community Grant.
Working with Bonnyville Dispatching on radio issues, software updates and upgrades.
Complete agenda packages for the Fire Committee Council meeting.
Smoky Lake Fire Department
Fire Meetings: November 2,
November 16 and November 30 @
7:30 pm
Vilna Fire Department
Fire Meetings: November 10
and November 24 @ 7:30 pm
Waskatenau Fire Department
Fire Meeting: To Be Determined
Upcoming Training & Event:
Fire Committee Council Meeting – November 4
Incident Command System 100 – November 17
Smoky Lake 2015 Smoky Lake October
Vilna 2015
Fires
34
Fires
5
Fires
Medical
31 Medical Assists 1 Medical Assists
Assists
Motor Vehicle 25 Motor Vehicle
2
Motor Vehicle
Collisions
Collisions
Collisions
Fire Alarms
22
Fire Alarms
5
Fire Alarms
Haz Mat
0
Haz Mat
0
Haz Mat
Total
112
Total
13
Total
29
13
16
6
1
65
Vilna October
Fires
0
Medical Assists 1
Motor Vehicle
Collisions
Fire Alarms
Haz Mat
Total
4
1
0
6
Waskatenau 2015
Fires
13
Medical Assists 7
Motor Vehicle
Collisions
Fire Alarms
Haz Mat
Total
17
2
2
41
Waskatenau October
Fires
3
Medical
0
Assists
Motor Vehicle
3
Collisions
Fire Alarms
0
Haz Mat
0
Total
6
Message From The Fire Chief
Annual pump testing is scheduled for the week of
November 9-13. Smoky Lake and Waskatenau fire trucks will be
using White Earth Creek and Vilna will be using Bonnie Lake. Each
Fire Truck will be out of service for 4-6 hours. Once we have
confirmed the date each department will be notified.
Thank You,
Scott Franchuk
Featured Apparatus: Smoky Lake Command
458
ARTICLE OF THE MONTH
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Jubilee Insurance Presentation VFIS
Jubilee Insurance is the insurance company that Counties and M.D’s use in Alberta making Smoky Lake County
one of them
Jubilee Insurance has researched all fire department insurances and believes VFIS provides the best coverage.
With Jubilee insurance having the large client base they are able to provide competitive rates with little
fluctuations.
VFIS policy’s main coverage is for death, dismemberment, injury and illness.
There are 2 types of coverage On-Duty or 24 hours. On-duty coverage will only provide coverage when the
member is involved with fire department tasks and 24 hour coverage also includes non-fire department tasks.
VFIS will provide coverage for non-members if they are working an event hosted by the department or asked to
help out at a scene.
VFIS will only cover up to a maximum of 25% of the total claim if the member was not wearing their seat belt at
the time of the injury and will have to rely on WCB claim.
Claims are based on monthly incomes, therefore Jubilee recommend that farmers, self-employed or retired
individuals to look for different 24 hour coverage options.
The use of Personal Vehicles for any Fire Department Operations will not be covered by any of the Smoky Lake
County, Town of Smoky Lake, Village of Vilna or Village of Waskatenau insurances and will be the responsibility of
the individuals involved.
Jubilee insurance has created a power point presentation tailored to our fire departments and I will email the
presentation to the departments for the members to read.
SRD Fall Meeting
One topic discussed was the use of tannerite. Tannerite is a combination of ammonium nitrate (an oxidizer) and
aluminium powder (a fuel) that is supplied as two separate powders that are mixed and shaken to produce an
explosive.
Tannerite can be purchased by the public and is available to everyone. There are no provincial or federal
regulations to control the use of this product.
Tannerite exploding by itself in a low fire hazard but when mixed with flammable to get the Hollywood effect it
becomes an issue.
Fire Departments that responded to these fire are having a challenging time due to the remote locations and
limited access as people do not want to get caught using the tannerite.
St. Paul County and the MD of Bonnyville are the first 2 municipalities to confirm fires started by tannerite.
Next topic that was discussed was the use of Drones.
RCMP traffic analysts are using them to complete their investigation on collisions which speeds up the
investigation.
Fire Department are starting to use drones to complete a scene size up for fires. This is good idea but there is a
lot of paper work needed to be completed to use the drone legally. A policy to use the drone for fire department
operations is required as well as federal approval and training hours have to be tracked and submitted.
Personal drones were spotted flying around the Cold Lake Weapons Range Wildfire and crews had to ground all
aerial firefighting attacks until the drones were grounded.
Fire department members had an interesting time fighting this fire as this was an active weapons range, they
were finding undetonated ammo. Pictures had to be send to the military to advise them what to do or they sent
military personnel to deal with the ammo.
Fireworks permits and fireworks regulations were discussed.
Fire Permits, inspections and brush pile burning were also discussed.
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