Alberta has imported roughly 2,000 firefighters from around the world. But what comes next?

Andrew Buchanan, a fire‐ fighter based in Strathcona County, says he can't talk long. Wildfires are moving quickly, and there's no guarantee an alarm won't sound while he's on the line, drawing him back on the job.

It's been a challenging wildfire season, said Buchanan, who is also the lead training officer for the Emergency Services Acad‐ emy (ESA), which provides professional firefighting train‐ ing.

The size of the fires are large, and when paired with a lack of moisture, the amount of dry fuel, the weather and the wind, conditions aren't working in the favour of fire‐ fighters, he said.

"We definitely need more firefighters, for sure. I mean, if you look at these large-scale incidences, it seems that we're always having to call in military, we're having to call in overseas," Buchanan said. "I don't think that's going to be a sustainable thing, going into the future."

Alberta has been gripped for several weeks in the midst of a devastating wildfire sea‐ son. Canadian Armed Forces reservists joined the front lines last month.

Across the country, chal‐ lenges have emerged. More than 2.7 million hectares of forest went up in flames last month across Canada, includ‐ ing in B.C., Ontario and Mani‐ toba, Emergency Prepared‐ ness Minister Bill Blair said last week.

Still, the minister said Ot‐ tawa isn't yet running short of firefighting resources, though in response to a reporter's question did say the wildfires could end up testing the lim‐ its.

"I don't want to refer to this as a competition, but we have many fires in many parts of the country drawing upon a limited number of re‐ sources, both within Canada and internationally," Blair said.

Natural Resources Minis‐ ter Jonathan Wilkinson previ‐ ously said the country will participate in an international pilot project to train firefight‐ ers from towns and cities to respond to fires that threaten homes and businesses. Cana‐ da has provided $170 million to develop the WildFireSat system, scheduled to launch by 2029, which uses a "pur‐ pose-built public satellite sys‐ tem" to monitor wildfires.

When the unprecedent‐ ed becomes precedent

During challenging wildfire seasons, Alberta can access additional firefighting re‐ sources from other jurisdic‐ tions by utilizing resource sharing agreements, many of which are allocated through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).

This year, the province welcomed 1,836 firefight‐ ers from British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfound‐ land, Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. An addition‐ al 215 firefighters from South Africa were scheduled to ar‐ rive this weekend.

"In extreme circum‐ stances, some resources de‐ ployed through [CIFFC] may be cancelled, diverted or de‐ mobilized early," wrote Der‐ rick Forsythe, a spokesperson with Alberta Wildfire.

"However, Alberta has in‐ dependent resource sharing agreements in place such as the Northwest Compact and an agreement with Jalisco, Mexico, that can be used to request additional help when needed."

Jen Beverly, a former fire‐ fighter and now a University of Alberta assistant professor of wildland fire research, said there's been good, docu‐ mented evidence of increas‐ ing trends of longer fire sea‐ sons and larger fires, as well as increased frequency of ex‐ tended dry spells.

"It's no longer the case where we can look at past da‐ ta and then understand what to expect this year or the next year. In fact, that word 'un‐ precedented' is what I'm hearing most often around the fire season — unprece‐ dented fire behaviour," said Beverly, who works in the U of A's department of renewable resources.

"I've been hearing that so frequently in the last 10 years. It's like the precedent is un‐ precedented. We should be expecting unprecedented conditions."

That means that officials can't rely on their past experi‐ ences or data when it comes to wildfires, Beverly said, and everyone must approach the challenge in a different way.

"It's shifting from what has been, I think, a focus on trying to predict and accepting that we can't do that very well," Beverly said, adding a poten‐ tial area of focus could in‐ clude assessing and mapping fuel hazards.

For Buchanan, the Strath‐ cona County firefighter, the situation across the province has led to increasing interest in more people turning to the ESA to receive firefighting training. But the situation calls for more action now, he said.

"The more local boots on the ground we can get trained here means we'll be much more effective in the long run," he said.

"If these are the sort of spring seasons that we're go‐

ing to see — dry, heavy fuel loads, increased wildfire risks — we're going to need to have those trained first re‐ sponders ready to go, rather than having to rely on inter‐ national support.

"That's incredible, people coming in. But I just don't think that's a system that's going to work, long-term."

The CIFFC lists five levels of preparedness, which refer to the wildland fire situation and the availability of fire‐ fighting resources in Canada. Level 1 is the lowest risk and Level 5 the highest. As of Fri‐ day, Alberta was listed as Lev‐ el 5.