Chilliwack Fire Department to Host 128 Firefighters for Urban Wildfire Training

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 28, 2024

Chilliwack, BC: The Chilliwack Fire Department, in partnership with the City of Chilliwack and the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), will be hosting 128 firefighters from Chilliwack, Mission, the Chilliwack River Valley, Agassiz, Popkum, and Abbotsford for a comprehensive wildland urban firefighting course called Responding to the Interface (RTI).

Supported through grant funding from the federal government, this course provides Structural Firefighters with comprehensive training and information regarding wildland urban interface response, command, strategies, and tactics. Firefighters will learn these critical skills through a combination of classroom sessions and mock response scenarios in the community. The RTI course is presented by IAFF instructors from across Canada and the United States.

Wildland Firefighters are experts at combatting fires in our forests and grasslands, while Structural Firefighters are trained and experienced dealing with structural and wildland fires. The Wildland Urban Interface is where the two environments meet, and fighting fires in the interface requires its own set of knowledge, skills and tactics.

For more information about the IAFF Responding to the Interface course, email rti@iaff.org.

If you see a wildfire in the back country, report it to BC Wildfire Service as soon as possible by calling 1-800-663-5555 or *5555 on a cell phone. For additional tips, visit BC Wildfire Service’s Wildfire Prevention page.