New fire tower on watch
More protection for high-priority area around Enterprise, Hay River and Kakisa
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Monday, May 25, 2015
ENTERPRISE
The territory's newest fire tower is about to become operational just south of Enterprise.
A new fire tower, shown here, is becoming operational just south of Enterprise. - photo courtesy of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources |
Richard Olsen, the manager of fire operations with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) in Fort Smith, said it should be ready for use by the end of this month.
"It's definitely positioned in an area of high priority and a lot closer to those priorities," he said of the new tower.
"So if a fire does pop up, we should be able to see things a lot smaller. And then at the same time it's safer for the tower man because he's no longer in an isolated spot. He's got road access."
The 30.5-metre-high tower was constructed last year and the final touches were being made last week by the company which built the structure.
Olsen said that included installing a fire finder, which is a sundial sort of device used to determine a fire's location after it is spotted.
"That's just getting installed literally as we speak," he said on May 20.
The tower, which will offer a 25 to 40-km view around the site, will provide more protection against forest fires for Enterprise, Hay River and Kakisa.
The tower will be manned by one person.
The company which constructed the fire tower is also setting up a trailer where the person manning the tower will be able to live on site.
Olsen said until that trailer is ready, the person will operate out of Enterprise.
"The regular tower man that we used to have at the Cameron Hills he'll be moving over," the ENR official said.
"He's scheduled to come on here in the next week or so. So we can still be able to put a guy up to take a look around. It will just be a couple of weeks before the facility for him to stay in is available."
That person will be working under contract through Evergreen Forestry Management.
Olsen said as of this spring, the fire tower in the Cameron Hills will no longer be manned, but it will be maintained as a communication repeater site.
The area normally covered by that tower will be overlooked by the new one in Enterprise.
"They'll be able to see all in that direction," said Olsen.
"And anything that's farther away up on top of the hill we normally cover that as well with fixed-wing flights."
The Enterprise tower will be manned until August.
Mayor John Leskiw II is conflicted about the imminent opening of the fire tower.
"A lot of us are relieved to know that for a change we're not being left entirely out in the open, that somebody is watching out for us," he said.
On the other hand, Leskiw is disappointed the position at the tower is not going to a resident of Enterprise.
"I'm glad it's going to be there but I had talked to the ministers and everybody I could to make sure there would be people from Enterprise manning it, if qualified, and nobody got back to us, so I don't know who's manning it," he said.
"I understand there are people in Enterprise who are trained and have experience at it, and I don't know if they've been contacted or not."
The Hamlet of Enterprise was consulted about the fire tower and passed a motion supporting the initiative prior to construction.
Olsen said this is the last year of the contract with Evergreen Forestry Management, and ENR may consider other hiring options in the future.
The construction of the fire tower was completed in September.
It is located between Highway 1 and Hay River, about two km south of the Enterprise hamlet office.
The GNWT awarded the construction contract to Hay River's Concept Energy Services Ltd., which submitted a bid of $286,000.
A lookout tower offers an advantage over satellite surveillance in spotting forest fires. Current satellite technology can detect heat and can identify a fire through cloud, but a fire needs to be of a certain size before it can be detected.
