Saskatchewan Environment Aviation Operations are gearing up for another season of fire fighting in the province.
A total of 34 pilots will be using two types of air tankers owned by the province to operate out of several air tanker bases.
Dennis Renaud, the Director of Aviation Operations in La Ronge, says much of the pilot prep work this spring was done in southern Saskatchewan.
“They did a day or two around La Ronge,” he says. “And then after that, they went to Estevan which is our new southern base and the temperatures were much warmer there. So they’ve been doing most of their training around that area.”
Renaud says besides the air tanker crews, other pilots are also involved in training.
“A bird dog aircraft of course is the one that goes to the fire first with the air attack officer,” he says. “So they go to the site, assess the fire, they look at values at risk and they develop a plan as to how the fire will be fought.”
Renaud says tanker crews have already been on standby this spring because of fires in the Saskatoon area and the in the U.S. Midwest, where conditions are very dry.
He says so far this spring, there have been no reports of fire activity in the north. But that is expected to change over the next week or two as temperatures rise and winds pick up.