Derek Neary
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 18/98) - The call for help to fight forest fires in Northern Alberta came on May 10 and by the following day, three NWT waterbombers and a "bird dog" scout plane were on the scene.

The Canadian Inter-agency Forest Fire Centre, based in Ontario, got the distress call from Alberta and called on resources from the NWT.

"We had a group available, ready to go so they chose us to go down there," explained Marc Vanderaegen, a CL-215 pilot and co-ordinator of the tanker program.

The eight crew members have been flying six to eight hours every day out of Slave Lake, Alta. They have been offering assistance in Virginia Hills and near High Prairie, after a stockpile of drying logs was incinerated at a mill and threatened to overtake the community.

There was potential for the NWT crews to have return home as soon as Saturday, depending on the weather.

Vanderaegen and Jim Smith returned from Alberta last Sunday.

"It is definitely bad down there," Vanderaegen said. "What they need, of course, is a little bit of help from Mother Nature to start cooling things off and get some rain happening."

The three waterbombers sent to Alberta are owned by the federal government but are being staffed and maintained by Buffalo Airways.

Buffalo Airways owner Joe McBryan was in Red Deer co-ordinating yet another group of planes that may be called into action.

Although a ban has been placed on all open fires in national parks in Alberta, the ban doesn't extend to the NWT's side of Wood Buffalo National Park.

The only fire pits in the NWT side park are located at Angus Tower and they are available for public use.

According to Lou Comin, fire chief for the park, the hazard for this time of year in the NWT is at moderate.

Regardless of the lack of fire action on the NWT-side, park officials are busy getting prepared.

"We wanted to make sure that we came on early and put our roadside towers up for man caused fires," Comin explained. The fire crew will also begin its training early, he added.

Mike Keizer, client and heritage services manager for the park, said Mother Nature provided some relief last weekend. "We did get two beautiful rain storms pass over Smith this weekend," he said.

Keizer added that members of fire crew will be available to help other crews across the country throughout the summer.