Nobleford and District Emergency Services puts spotlight on training and improves vehicle fleet in 2026

Sunny South News Photo Submitted by Ryan Wagner, Nobleford & District Emergency Services Fire Chief. EXCITING NEWS: The Nobleford & District Emergency Services will receive a new apparatus this fall, a new addition to their fleet as a water tender apparatus to be utilized for the Lethbridge County region.

By Kristine Jean
Sunny South News

The Nobleford and District Emergency Services is sharing some exciting updates in 2026, particularly those around training and its vehicle fleet.     

“2026 has been a very busy year for our training division. We’ve had a lot of members take their NFPA 1001, which is their Firefighter Level 1 and Firefighter Level 2,” said Ryan Wagner, Town of Nobleford Fire Chief. “So we’ve been pushing a lot of our new recruits through that throughout the year and that’s coming to an end around December when everybody writes their exams, does the testing and gets certified.” 

The Town of Nobleford regularly updates the community about the NDES, to provide information about who they are, what they do and what they have to offer. 

The NDES uses a total of seven trucks and one specialty trailer for their emergency responses, and have a brand new truck that is expected to arrive this fall. Their current fleet includes two command trucks, a rescue truck, two engine trucks, a wildland truck and a medical response unit. 

Wagner said they are expecting an exciting addition to the NDES fleet this fall. A new water tender that holds over 3,000 gallons of water and responds with their apparatus to structure fires, vehicle fires and wildland fires, along with mutual aid partners, will soon be a part of the fleet.  

“It’s something that’s been in the works for quite a while and we’re excited that it should be showing up this fall,” said Wagner. “This is the first water tender for Nobleford,“ he added, noting there’s only two in the County – one in Picture Butte and one in Coaldale, that attend every fire call in the County. “It’s exciting, it’s going to help our firefighters be more efficient, get the job done and help our mutual aid neighbours, too.”          

Most of the units have been purchased through the annual fire agreements with Lethbridge County, with the exception of the command unit and livestock trailer – both of these have been purchased and donated by the Nobleford Ag Society and the Lethbridge 4H Club. 

Over the summer members with the Nobleford and District Emergency Services also completed fire officer training, where they joined mutual aid partners in Coaldale and Coalhurst in several officer development courses. 

“We’ve also had members take a fire investigation course, Level 1 and recently one of our guys competed Level 2,” said Wagner. “So quite a bit of training this year, and that’s on top of our regular Monday night training ”

The Monday night training includes learning and preparing for all aspects of emergency response noted Wagner. 

“Training’s been good and there’s definitely been a lot of extra time put into training this year,” he said, noting the NDES currently has about 22 members with two more that are interested in joining during the next recruit intake. 

In addition to a focus on training and vehicle updates, Wagner shared about the success of the NDES new training facility’s first year, which was built in 2025. 

“It’s been in the build stage for about three years, planning for about five plus years and last year we had an open house and showcased it to everyone,” said Wagner, noting several practice scenarios in the facility helped with training. “We opened it up to our neighbouring departments to come and train – we’ve had all of our mutual aid departments come out there and use the facility.” 

The training facility includes three buildings that utilizes live fires and smoke conditions, and are set up like houses for training purposes. 

“We have propane fuel props – we have two of those where we set those up and guys go in there and take care of pressurized fuel fires,” explained Wagner. “Then we also have a concrete pad where we put vehicles down for vehicle extrication, where we cut vehicles apart and do patient care.”  

“It’s quite the facility we have and that is 100 per cent funded through our Nobleford Firefighters Society fundraisers that they host and they do every year, and donations we get, it all goes towards this where we can just continually build,” he added. 

As of this summer they added on four new Seacan containers to the structure for a total of six (containers) on the one building, explained Wagner.  

“So we’re increasing the size of our buildings to mimic more of a residential setting with bedrooms and hallways, so there’s lots of opportunity to grow the facility,” said Wagner. “The members of the Firefighters Society and the Fire Department, they all take great care of it. There’s lots of pride and it’s been a great asset for us to train – both in all these courses and on our scheduled Monday nights.”

During Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 4-10, the NDES visited area schools to promote fire safety and held an open house for students.  

The also hosted the annual Nobleford Hose Relay Contest for the first time. The competition rotates across Lethbridge County through the other departments every year, noted Wagner.  

“It’s a lot of fun. It’s working together, training together, doing emergency calls together,” said Wagner. “It’s good to come out and have some camaraderie and enjoy the brotherhood with everybody from all the other departments.” 

Fire departments from Coaldale, Coalhurst, and Picture Butte participated in the hose relay contest – a fun activity that helps showcase some of the firefighter’s skills.    

“It’s good for the community to come down and see,” said Wagner.