City firefighters unveil new sprinkler trailer to help in wildfires

By Lethbridge Herald on August 27, 2025.

Chris Jorgensen, qualified officer with LFES demonstrates how a sprinkler is set up from the sprinklers found within the new Wildland Sprinkler Trailer Tuesday during a media availability outside Senator Joyce Fairbairn Middle School.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services has purchased a new Wildland Sprinkler Trailer to invest in the City of Lethbridge’s wildfire response capabilities.

The equipment is valued at $137,000 and it enhances the Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services’ fire suppression efforts, particularly in vulnerable river valley areas.

Chris Jorgensen, qualified officer with LFES explained that the Wildland Sprinkler Trailer will be used to create a wet line or a wall to stop a wildfire from moving in. 

“The idea is that we can put up a series of large impact sprinklers to create a wet line or a wall to stop a front of fire to come into a neighbourhood, or we can use it to surround a structure to protect it individually, like the Helen Schuler Centre,” said Jorgensen. 

The Wildland Sprinkler Trailer is equipped with multiple water pumps, hoses, sprinkler heads and built-in storage, to deploy a comprehensive firefighting strategy in the face of wildfire threats. 

Jorgensen said the sprinklers have a coverage area of approximately a kilometer radius and they can connect multiple of them together to cover the required area. 

“To get optimum pressure, we would go from hydrant to hydrant, stretched out between them, so it’s really designed to run alongside the edge of the border of the city, so we can stop wildfires from coming in,” said Jorgensen. 

He said there is a pump on each end, and he explained the sprinklers used are agricultural style impact sprinklers and each of them will cover between 100 to 150 ft radius. 

“The benefit of that is that we can put less sprinklers down in a quicker timeframe and get more coverage,” said Jorgensen. 

He explained that the set up requires between two to three people, ideally four, but due LFES often being “stretched” in terms of manpower, particularly during a large structure fire or a wildfire, the idea is to invest in having at least couple of people trained for it. 

“The setup may take an hour or two hours depending on the conditions of the area and then it can be monitored by just one person,” said Jorgensen. 

“One person can look after one kilometre of wet line and stretch our resources to be doing direct suppression on the wildfire itself.” 

He said that because wildfires are a rare occurrence LFES has a core group with a number of people in each platoon that are trained for initial setup. 

“Because time will be important for setup, we spend a lot of time trying to come up with a procedure or system so that we can decide where the setup is going to be and then we can rapidly set it up,” said Jorgensen. 

He said the idea of purchasing the Wildland Sprinkler Trailer came from the fact that other areas are using similar systems. 

“I’m sure you’re familiar with the Waterton wildfire and that’s really what saved the community. They had a system setup similar to this and probably some of the same elements setup so it would run for hours before the fire came,” said Jorgensen. 

He said this way the area was soaked down so any hot ambers coming in would not be likely to ignite. 

“This increases the humidity in the area, so fire behaviour drops down and it’s easier to approach to actually supress or extinguish it,” said Jorgensen. 

He said the province has been using this technique for a while now, and the need for enhanced wildfire response capabilities has become increasingly urgent as wildfires have become more frequent and intense across the province. 

Lethbridge’s River Valley is particularly vulnerable during the dry season due to the limited fire hydrant availability and the challenges of deploying conventional firefighting equipment on steep terrain. 

“We can also use the system out in the county or for working with our rural partners. So, if we have a structure that was supplied with a dugout and a static water source, we can set this up to draft from that and encircle the property with the sprinklers to create a wall of suppression for it,” said Jorgensen. 

Kevin O’Brien, qualified fire officer said having the Wildland Sprinkler Trailer is making a big difference to their suppression model. 

“Before for larger events we were unable to stop the front part of the fire and this addresses that missing link and we are going to be able to stop and slowdown the fires and extinguish them, easier than with normal tools,” said O’Brien.