SUNDRE — Although the Victoria Day long weekend many years ago tended to keep area emergency responders on their toes, the situation more recently seems to have settled substantially, said the local fire chief.
“Years and years ago, we used to be run off our feet and now it seems to have tapered down,” said Marty Butts.
“We’d have to gear up for May longs, and they were going to be busy right from Friday to Monday. I don’t know what’s changed,” said Butts, speculating that perhaps public attitudes have evolved and improved.
“It’s a good trend in the right direction, because maybe people are getting it,” he said.
From Friday, May 15 to Monday, May 18, he said the Sundre Fire Department responded to three calls for service. The first was mid-afternoon on the Friday, when a crew responded to a grass fire west of town that had spread into some trees and consumed a couple of acres before being contained and extinguished without any buildings sustaining damage.
“It had potential, but the guys were on it and got it dealt with,” he said.
On Saturday, May 16, the department responded at about 2:30 a.m. to a medical first response. Later that night, there was a motor vehicle collision on a rural property in the James River area, where a pickup truck crashed into a farm tractor, he said, adding no one was hurt.
Overall, the chief described the long weekend as “fairly mellow.”
“It was good for how busy our area was…I was expecting more. But it’s always good when we have no calls or just a couple on weekends like this,” he said.
Luckily, there were no fatalities in the area over the weekend, he said.
“Somewhere in the province on these long weekends, somebody pays the ultimate price. We were fortunate enough not to have any serious, bad calls like that. But we have in the past.”
Meanwhile, members of Sundre Search and Rescue had an otherwise uneventful weekend.
“It was very quiet. There were no calls, no patrols, no meet and greet,” said Roger Tetreault, president and one of two active search managers, who has been involved with the organization since moving to Sundre 25 years ago.
“A little quieter than normal, because we usually do a public awareness and education program. But of course with social distancing and all that, that was cancelled.”
Traditionally participating in checkstops alongside RCMP as well as Fish and Wildlife officers is an opportunity to promote to the public not only their organization but also safe backcountry practices including their Distance to Assistance program, Tetreault said this was the first time search and rescue pulled the plug on that engagement.
“May long weekend, for us, is traditionally not any busier than any other weekend, which surprises us for the amount of people that are out there,” he said.
But people usually tend to head out on May long weekend to camp in large groups and generally don’t end up getting lost after wandering away from their sites.
“They just do stupid things and the police deal with them,” he said with a chuckle.
Although uncertain of official numbers, Tetreault said judging by his personal experience over the years that the Victoria Day long weekend drew out plenty of people.
“It was probably one of the busiest weekends I’ve ever seen. Just from my take on the number of campers and people heading out west. It was busy,” he said.
With everyone “being cooped up as long as they’ve been and the golf courses being opened” while almost everything else such as sporting events and concerts remain cancelled and movie theatres are still closed, many people decided to just go camping, he said.
Although the government did not discourage family units from going camping, Tetreault questioned the wisdom of that approach in the middle of a pandemic.
“It’s just that strain on the resources. People can stay in the cities. It’s like the old adage when you have a safety meeting, nobody moves and nobody gets hurt,” he said.
“But when people started filtering out west here on regular weekends just to go have fun because they can’t do other things, they put themselves at risk.”
To have as many as 10,000 or more people come out for a long weekend compared with perhaps about 1,000 on a regular weekend can potentially overwhelm resources, he said.
“That’s the last thing you want to do, is overwhelm any kind of emergency resources, whether it’s police, fire, ambulance, hospitals.”
Outdoor enthusiasts keen to get some fresh air might reply they’re not at risk and just enjoying a day quadding, but if there are any misadventures that end up requiring a tow truck at best, or at worst, a team of medical first responders, then “someone has to come and deal with you, face-to-face,” he said.
“If they do require assistance — help of any kind — it does put people in contact with each other, and we need to be aware of that.”
And although hospital capacities have remained stable, there previously were concerns about availability of beds, he said.
“You don’t want some guy taking up a bed in the ER that broke his leg out on a quad doing what he shouldn’t have been doing, when he had the option of staying home and being safe.”
He also advises against picking up people from Calgary, where businesses like restaurants remained in an extended lockdown over the long weekend.
“There’s a lot of people coming out from Calgary, and they are kind of a hot zone!”
Of course visitors contribute a vital and welcome boost to the local economy, he said.
“We do appreciate the people that do come out west and enjoy the country, and the business it brings to town.”
It’s just a matter of understanding the risks involved, and therefore how important adhering to health guidelines is, he said.
“I’m sure the businesses appreciate it, as long as they (customers) are playing by the rules and being safe.”
The Albertan did not hear back from the Sundre RCMP or the local Fish and Wildlife office before press deadline.
