
Training underway for Clearwater Fire Department Initial Attack Crew’s first season of wildfire response
CLEARWATER — The Clearwater Fire Department has taken a big step towards expanding its fire response as it added a wildfire Initial Attack Crew to cover the District and the surrounding region.
“We just decided to take the initiative and have the equipment and the extra folks to bolster our resources that we have here so we’re not depleting what we have in town,” Clearwater Fire Chief, Mike Smith, told CFJC Today Thursday (June 19).
The move comes several years after BC Wildfire Service Initial Attack Crews were pulled from Clearwater. The District had repeatedly asked for those resources to return but after another ‘no’ from the provincial government, it opted to form its own, municipally-led crew out of the existing fire department.