Taber FD lends a hand up north while maintaining coverage at home

Times Photo Submitted by Taber Fire Department.

By Cal Braid
Taber Times
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

 “This year has been a busy year, to say the least,” said Taber Fire Chief Steve Munshaw when assessing 2025 at his department. However, the busy-ness wasn’t all local and it was a balancing act. The fire department sent officers to Red Earth Creek, a remote northern town near almost nothing, unless you know where Loon Lake is. Its location could roughly be described as well north of Lesser Slave Lake and well northeast of Peace River.

 “Our most significant supporting mechanism this year was obviously responding to the wildfires in the north, where we spent two weeks supporting their fire operations,” Munshaw explained. Assistant Fire Chief Steve Swarbrick spent the first seven days with the Taber crew before Capt. Rob Ducharme spent the next seven days with the team. The crew’s 14 days in the area was spent doing wildfire prep and sprinkler prep for the communities.

 While lending a hand elsewhere in the province, Munshaw said that priority number one was ensuring safety at home in Taber while firefighters were away.

 “Our number one goal is to protect our residents,” he said. “In that process, we’re dealing with volunteer, paid on-call firefighters, (who) not only find the time to be able to go and assist the province, but we also have to say, ‘Okay, who’s available to support our community as a whole?’”

He said the Taber FD can’t help the province unless it has enough support here in town. That means availability from the on-call volunteer firefighters, many of whom have other jobs. By extension, their employers are asked to accommodate the extenuating circumstance by saying ‘Yes, you can respond to fire calls while you’re at work for the time being, so that we can help the entire province and our community’.

 When asked about other significant emergencies that the fire department responded to in 2025, Munshaw chose his words wisely. “You know, every call that we go on is immense and tragic to somebody. To place something higher than somebody else’s is very difficult.”

 Rather than ranking incidents he simply said the department also addressed local structure fires, including a six-plex fire that displaced multiple families. Whether it’s fires or accidents, he said the impact on individuals and families is disturbing, leaving them with emotional and material losses.