Yellowhead County Fire Department hosts provincial pilot project for Tanker Shuttle Operations Certification

Yellow head County Fire Department ( YCFD) is assisting the provincial government in new tanker shuttle operation training and certification not currently available in Alberta.

YCFD recently hosted a provincial pilot program for tanker shuttle operations certification. The pilot program, done in conjunction with Alberta Fire Commissioner’s Office, was done to test the viability of the program so that Alberta fire departments can have a standard for certification at an international standard.

This new training level, currently not available in the province, is the NFPA’s ( National Fire Protection Association) 1002 Chapter 10 Professional Fire Apparatus Driver Pump Operator standard. The Alberta Fire Commissioner’ s Office has worked closely with YCFD on other pilot courses in the past to increase the certification available to fire departments across the province.

The course consisted of training for water shuttle operations - using large fire trucks that can transport large volumes of water to locations that are not serviced by a municipal fire hydrant system. During the pilot program, sixteen officers and pump operators from Brule to Evansburg participated and gained invaluable knowledge of the options and methods to increase efficiency on scenes. Shortly after the program, participants that took part in the t raining that increased the department’s e f fect i veness were able to employ their skills at a recent fire, showing the benefit of the training in action.

During the pilot program, sixteen officers and pump operators from Brule to Evansburg participated and gained invaluable knowledge of the options and methods to increase efficiency on scenes.”

The Y CF D training division has implemented this as a standard training program for all its stations now and will continue to train its apparatus operators and officers on implementing water shuttle operations. The 24- hour course occurred at Millers Lake and at one of the new dry hydrant water supplies in River Ridge from October 14th to 16th.