Members of the Black Lake Fire Department working as a team to extend the hose and spray the target as quick as possible. (Nick Nielsen/paNOW Staff)

By Nick Nielsen

Blazing skills

P.A. welcomes back First Nation’s Provincial Firefighting Competition

Sep 1, 2024 | 8:00 AM

For the first time since the pandemic, Saskatchewan First Nations Emergency Management (SFNEM) brought their annual First Nation’s Provincial Firefighting Competition back to Prince Albert in conjunction with the Prince Albert Grand Council.

The event brings in First Nations firefighting teams from around the province into Prince Albert to compete in several challenges with a provincial title on the line.

Harold Isbister is the Emergency Protective Services Officer with the SFNEM and one of the lead organizers of the event, and he said that it’s great to have the event back in Prince Albert after not being here since the pandemic.

“It’s always good to put it on in PA, it always helps the economy and PA with a lot of large groups of incoming people from all around Saskatchewan are coming to try their hand at the event and hopefully once they do the provincial, they have a chance to move on to the national event which is held one year in the East Coast next year in West Coast, and this year it’s being held in the West Coast, so the teams are really trying their best here to put their best foot forward and have winning times to be able to travel on to nationals and a chance for a national prize.”

Fond Du Lac Fire Department fires off the hose at their target. (Photo by: Nick Nielsen)

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Isbister helps train a number of the First Nations firefighting crews around the province, and so seeing these groups come together to compete in these events not only creates great competition, but also gives him a chance to evaluate where their training is at. With First Nations from Fond Du Lac from the northern portion of the province to Peepeekisis in the southeast towards Yorkton, a wide range of reserves are represented.

“It’s good to see them again and learn what’s going on in their communities and try to keep them moving forward with training and new technology that’s coming on board with structural and wildland firefighting and emergency services, all those sorts of things. Search and Rescue is a big part of what we do now and more people and more of the First Nations are getting interested in those types of activities and disciplines because they want to help out in their own communities when an emergency arises.”

Like many things, the pandemic had a significant effect on the First Nation’s Firefighting Provincial Championships. Some events had to be cancelled, and they haven’t been able to get back on their yearly schedule since. Isbister is happy to see the turnout of the event this year, and it looks like it’s starting to get back to their normal levels.

“It’s starting to pick up momentum. Lots of the First Nations are starting to get back interested in it again since COVID and the pandemic, it died off a bit for a couple years now. The First Nations are now putting their teams back together and are forming new teams to try their hand at winning the provincial competition.”

While there is a level of competitiveness to the competition, the biggest takeaway from the event is how multiple communities come together to help each other get better at an important safety measure. There’s already a sense of comradery amongst firefighters to begin with, but adding the shared First Nations heritage to the event makes everyone even closer.

One of the firefighting teams going over their game plan for the next event. (Photo by: Nick Nielsen)

“It is a sense of family because it is an Aboriginal firefighters’ event. It is made for all the First Nations in Saskatchewan to have a chance to put in and enter a team and it’s a real sense of comradery because of our same culture, sometimes same languages. A lot of the First Nations are big extended families that live in different communities, but they’re still connected by family, so it’s a real event where everybody comes together and shares this opportunity and it cheers each other on and it’s a good sense of friendship, connecting with people that they haven’t seen for a year.”

Winners from this year’s First Nation’s Fire Fighting Provincial Championships will go on to Nationals in Richmond, BC in October.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com