Federal wildfire decisions need to come ‘quicker’: fire services provider [Video]

A private firefighting service provider says crews contracted to work to protect buildings in and around the town of Jasper during July’s wildfire emergency were denied entry to the national park for most of a day.

Kris Liivam, the president of Arctic Fire Safety Services, says unclear communication from emergency managers hampered efforts by his crews, who thought they had written permission to enter the national park on July 25, the day after a powerful wildfire destroyed a third of the townsite but with the fire risk still high despite heavy rain.

At the time, a small Arctic Fire Safety Services crew was already in Jasper, under contract to provincial Alberta Wildfire, working to protect the town. Meanwhile, in Hinton, more of Liivan’s team was trying to enter the park — more than a dozen trucks and about 50 firefighters who had been hired to protect specific properties including Marmot …