Annual Report - Fire Services

The Drayton Valley/Brazeau County Fire Services is a composite fire department composed primarily of a volunteer staff of roughly sixty members and six full time staff. We respond from three stations which include: Lodgepole, Breton, and Drayton Valley. Brazeau County cost shares fire service protection with the Town of Drayton Valley for the station located in Drayton Valley. In 2016 the department responded to a total of 298 calls for service which included 148 calls for the Town of Drayton Valley and 150 calls for Brazeau County.

As part of the departments ongoing efforts to provide better care for the citizens of Brazeau County, we have begun to train and purchase medical equipment to assist EMS in providing medical response.

In 2016, the department was actively engaged in the purchase of two new bush trucks for wildland fire operations and a new pumper/rescue truck which was a cost shared project with Brazeau County, the Town of Drayton Valley, and the Government of Alberta. All of these units will come on-line in 2017. The department also completed its first full year issuing fire burn permits out of the Fire Services head office. Three options have been made available to the public to receive permits which include on-line permitting, calling in requesting a permit, or a visitation to the head office in Drayton Valley. The department is looking to extend the online capabilities for the public to access the fire permitting application form using a smart phone. This will be completed in 2017.

Also in 2016 the department actively engaged the public hosting a series of fire prevention programs and events. This included our annual chimney sweep program as well as partaking in community safety programs such as FireSmart initiatives and school fire prevention programs.