Alberta declares huge investments to fight forest fire

MONTREAL (Scrap Monster): The Alberta government is planning huge long term investments to equip the province to better fight forest fires. The government plans to spend nearly $ 1 billion towards wildfire prevention and firefighting.

The province has already sanctioned $115 million to be spent over the next three years towards implementing the recommendations put forward by the Flat Top Complex Wildfire Review Committee which conducted a comprehensive study on the 2011 Slave Lake Wildfire.

The series of fire that burned through the Town of Slave Lake and its surrounding area had burned 433 buildings and damaged 89, leaving hundreds of people homeless. The fund allotted for this fiscal is $31 million, said Environment and Sustainable Resource Development Minister Robin Campbell at a press conference.

The province plans to spend more money on FireSmart projects that seeks ways for integrating fire prevention in regular forest management. It also plans to improve emergency response mechanisms by adding more number of specialized firefighters.

Earlier, the province had changed the official start of wildfire season from the traditional April 1st to March 1st this year.