New nighttime wildfire-fighting crew ready to fight flames after dark

Nighttime firefighting started as a pilot project in Alberta in 2022, but it's now a staple of the province's fire defense system.

A new crew of Alberta Wildfire staff finished training to fight fires at night.

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In 2022, the province started a nighttime firefighting pilot program. At night, with cooler temperatures, getting water on the flames is more efficient.

Recently, 11 new crew members finished training and another program member believes they are “well prepared” for the upcoming wildfire season.

Now, the strategy is an important part of Alberta’s fire defense system.

“It was one helicopter in 2023, (in) 2024 it was three helicopters, and now, we’re at a solid four, and we’re really growing the program quickly because of its usefulness,” said Wade Klein, a night-vision crew member.

Klein joined the program in 2023. He sits in the passenger seat of the helicopter and uses night vision goggles to see.

During the day, the field of vision in a helicopter is about 200 degrees, but at night with the goggles, it’s down to around 40 degrees, which is why there are two people up front in the night flights, according to Klein.

“It’s just recognizing hazards, pointing them out, coming up with flight planning, strategy and tactics on fire and a lot of it is reporting on what the fire is doing at night,” Klein said.

There are always risks when it comes to fighting fires, but Klein said that flying at night is about as dangerous as driving at night.

“The first time I went up, I was (expecting it to be) like bad action movies, like ‘Predator’ was how I would (imagine) it,” he said. “It’s actually really impressive the amount of detail you get out of the goggles, the technology is pretty crazy.”

The advantage of knowing what a fire does overnight, while ground crews are resting, helps the efforts come morning.

“We’re most efficient when we are working with crews and dozers and stuff like that, because in the end, aerial Firefighting is aerial firefighting, the ground crews are what put out fires,” he said.

“They’re the most important resource we have.”

If there is no need for night monitoring, the crews can operate during the day, but Klein said over the past two years, they were flying every night.

Sar far this year, 223 wildfires have been extinguished in Alberta and 14 are active as of Friday evening.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nicole Weisberg