Province Ready To Start Building New Fire Towers

Friday, June 10, 2005 at 15:14

 

 

Saskatchewan Environment says the installation of 20 new wildfire observation towers in the North is about to begin.

 

Maintenance work on the roads leading to the tower sites is scheduled to begin this week, with the construction of concrete bases for the towers to follow.

 

Environment Minister David Forbes says the new construction is designed to improve fire watches in the central and southern portions of the Northern Provincial Forest.

 

When the 20 new towers are completed, there will be a total of 33 operational in towers in place in the province.

 

The department says an additional 12 potential observation sites have been assessed and selected for potential future development.

 

A total of $840,000 has been allocated for construction of the towers, which will be operational for the 2006 wildfire season.

 

Northern Saskatchewan relies on a combination of aircraft and observation towers to detect wildfires.