Crossfield's Fire Department is holding an information session this weekend in the hopes of imparting to the public the importance of fire prevention as well as emergency preparedness.

The session comes amid a sustained fire advisory for Rocky View County that was announced last week; though the advisory does not encompass Crossfield. Other neighbouring counties that have announced fire restrictions, include Mountain View County. The county's fire restriction continues to be in effect.

However, the town's Fire Chief, Bill Messner said that there is the potential for a very busy grass fire season.

"This is turning into [the] potential of what we saw last year; an uptick in grass fires within the area, within the county itself, " Chief Messner noted. "This is where prevention and preparedness do come in. If something does come about where it does get out of hand, and we do need to prepare for evacuation - the residents themselves can do quite a bit to help us with this."

Chief Messner said that residents need to understand that they should be prepared for any level of evacuation.

"We will always endeavour as a municipality to try and give as much advanced notice as we can if an evacuation is required, but potentially there could be those times where we will need to evacuate in a very expedient manner. This is where the community needs to be prepared for that - to be prepared for the worst."

While the session is intended to help the community familiarize itself with being prepared for an emergency, Chief Messner said that the fire department has also been working to make sure it is ready, this includes the training of new recruits.

Earlier this month, Crossfield firefighters responded to a grassfire in the north part of the town near railway tracks, while last week a grassfire northeast of Airdrie saw several fire departments in the area responding, including Didsbury, Olds, and the Torrington fire department.

Despite the recent heavy snowfall around the region, much of the province is still preparing for a dry summer which could lead to drought and exacerbate the wildfire situation in the province.

Earlier this week, it was announced that Alberta's government would be shoring up funding for the Community Fireguard Program.

"This year’s budget provides an additional $14 million to the program to support Alberta communities, bringing total funding to $19 million. In addition, the budget includes funding for two additional air tanker groups and two new night vision-equipped helicopters," the province stated.

Several months ago evacuation orders were issued when a grassfire caused by a downed powerline northwest of Airdrie threatened properties. The fire that occurred in December spread quickly due to gusting winds, reaching 350 hectares at one point.

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