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Sept. 5, 2013, Redwood Meadows, Alta. – It feels like it has been a while since I last blogged. Actually, it has been. Things have been just a little busy around the job, house and fire station over the summer. But I did write the cover story for the August issue of Fire Fighting in Canada – on the floods here in Alberta – so I haven’t exactly been away.

I thought this was a good time to get back to the keyboard and start writing again. For one thing, as with any skill, the longer you are away from it the more rusty you get. If I continue to use being busy as an excuse, you may not ever hear from me again.

Once again I seem to be leaving my wife Jennifer to look after the house and kids while I leave on a jet plane. It is most likely that while the FFIC team is looking for spelling and style errors in this blog, I will be well on my way to Pearson for some Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs business in the GTA. I also plan to visit some local departments to get some pictures and meet some brothers and sisters. But this is a quick trip over the weekend to start off the month.

September is shaping up to be a very busy month for me and the crew at Redwood Meadows Emergency Services (RMES). This trip is taking place on my days off from Calgary’s Public Safety Communications department. I come back to work on Monday and begin a week-long course for my new position as an acting team lead. On the weekend of Sept. 14 and 15, our department is taking part in the Heroes in the Sky event to promote our Firefighters 1st calendar sales for 2014. The event is once again happening in the center of Bragg Creek, where our firefighters will host a barbeque, fire extinguisher demos and much more. Two of our members will be on the roof of Food Town for the weekend – that would be the Heroes in the Sky part of the festivities. T-shirt sales, calendar sales, a barbeque raffle, Saturday night concert and Sunday morning yoga and pancake breakfast are all part of it. So if you live in the area or are just visiting please come by. Watch for Facebook and Twitter updates from the weekend – #RMESheroesinthesky.

After this hectic weekend I go back to the paying job in Calgary and then on Saturday, Sept. 21, I fly to the CAFC Fire-Rescue Canada conference in Regina. I will be speaking at the conference about the challenges that we have experienced in Redwood Meadows and how we adapt and overcome them. I hope to see a lot of readers there. Really, do you have a better place to be?

Rob Evans is the chief fire officer for Redwood Meadows Emergency Services, 25 kilometres west of Calgary. Evans attended the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in 1989 and studied photojournalism. In 1992, he joined RMES after taking pictures of an interface fire and making prints for the department. He has his NFPA 1001 level II certification, NFPA 472 Operations and Awareness (hazmat), NFPA 1041 level I (fire service instructor), Dalhousie University Certificate in Fire Service Leadership and Certificate in Fire Service Administration and is a registered Emergency Medical Responder with the Alberta College of Paramedics. He lives in Redwood Meadows with his wife, a firefighter/EMT with RMES, and three children. Follow him on Twitter at @redwoodwoof.