Counter Talks Episode #47: Putting Out Fires: Blake Menning, All-Choice Rentals

One day in late May, Blake Menning, vice-president of All-Choice Rentals in Drayton Valley, Alta., and his wife got an alert in the wee hours of the morning. Wildfires had reached the outskirts of town and they had 10 minutes to pack up their young children and evacuate using the only passable road out of town. That started a six-week odyssey that saw Menning and his team do things they’d never done before in a desperate but well-coordinated bid to save their town and the communities around it. Tune into this episode for Menning’s wild story of setting up and moving firefighting command centres, rescuing the company server, checking houses for unfed fish and abandoned garbage and delivering equipment into walls of smoke and fire with water bombers cruising overhead. It’s a tale of a community coming together and a rental store going above and beyond to do its civic duty.