When Women Are In Charge...

Female firefighters planned burn goes awry in Banff

A prescribed burn highlighted on the agenda of a women’s firefighting conference, held to promote “diversity and inclusion” in a male-dominated field, didn’t go well.

Accidentally setting Banff National Park ablaze wasn’t part of the plan.

The prescribed burn was carried out in Compound Meadows, adjacent to the Banff townsite, by Parks Canada and participants in Canada’s first-ever Women-in-Fire Training Exchange (WTREX).

It raged out of control Wednesday forcing the temporary evacuation of horses from the Banff Light Horse Association and hundreds of area residents and tourists in the Rocky Mountain Resort.

Interchanges were closed. Traffic was backed up on the Trans Canada Hwy. A cemetery was threatened. Trees were scorched. Billows of smoke that could be seen in Canmore polluted and clouded the air.