When the Wildfire Wildfire of Parker Lake crossed Fort Nelson, BC, last year in May, the Sonja Leverkus bomber said that finding water to fight against the fire became an important challenge.
“The floor was still frozen at that time,” he said. “I seriously remember being in my hands and knees in the line of fire, digging on the frozen earth, still trying to make a mud to put on some of the hot points.”
It was only an example of the many challenges that can face the areas of the remote north in combat fires. As forest fires continue in parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, many of these regions are struggling with problems such as access to water, dry conditions, expensive equipment and limited fire personnel.
Drought, for example, can be an important problem in some of these areas, Leverkus said.
“The places we used to dig a small hole and get water to help us do cleaning activities,” he said. “We are really seeing a lack of water.”
‘On our own here’
The remote communities suffer partly because when the fires explode in more densely populated regions, the provincial resources are reopened in those areas, Leverkus said.
“And sometimes it feels like … we are alone here in the northeast.”
The first nations in northern Manitoba want more teams in their fight against forest fires that helped trigger an emergency state throughout the province. Pukatawagan Chief Gordie Bear said that people in his community resorted to fighting fire with hoses “no larger than a garden hose”, including some that are generally used on the community hockey track.
The transport of fire extinguishing equipment and resources can also raise a challenge. Moving Southern BC teams to Fort Nelson can be “incredibly expensive,” he said, and can take several days.
One of the biggest challenges is to keep ready for a fire team at all times.
“A person has to be very creative to keep the crew to stay here to help fight the fire.”
Ken Lodge, mayor of Lac Du Bonnet, Man., Where forest fires recently forced around 1,000 people to evacuate, said he understands the challenges of having enough firefighters available.
“We in the smallest and most remote areas do not have the income for the personnel of a large, permanent, or even permanent fire department,” Lodge said. “So we subsist in voluntary people.”
The training is “extraordinarily expensive,” he said, and not everyone can do all jobs.
And because they are volunteers, they cannot always leave their work paid to go to fight fires, he said.
“It means that you will rarely have a complete crew fighting fires,” he said. “Especially if you have a fire as significant as what we have had here, where it lasts several days and there is a lot of territory that must be covered here, with limited access..”
Ken Lodge, mayor of Lac du Bonnet, man, says that those in the community who knew the two people who died in the forest fire are “devastated”, but the city is resistant.
The team is also limited and comes with a great cost that municipalities support the municipalities, Lodge said.
Even so, although the departments of rural firefighters such as yours are relatively well trained and equipped, when it comes to forest fires, “resources are not generally there to combat some of this magnitude.”
‘Thinking about ways of slowing it’
Despite the challenges of resources, Leverkus and other fire experts believe that there are ways to make their work less challenging: mitigation strategies that can help reduce damage and destruction caused by fires.
“I don’t think we should think that something will prevent a fire from driving a community,” he said. “I think we should be thinking about ways of slowing it down.”
Jarret Nelson is in the front line that fights a forest fire in Weyakwin, Sask. The community is one of the many in the province that has been recently evacuated, with fires that endanger property and residents and smoke fill the air. Nelson has been documenting the effort to combat Pirew fire with water bombers, large hoses, fire breaks and back burns.
And for that, prevention is key. Cliff Buettner, former director of Forest and Emergency Services and Protection with Prince Albert Grand Council in Saskatchewan, said it is crucial that the owners eliminate the possible sources of fire fuel from their surroundings, or break what is called a triangle of fire: heat, air and fuel.
“Get rid of fuel around your home,” he said. “Shyss the things that may burn; move them.”
Cedros, for example, are a particular danger, Buettner said.
“Everyone has a good ornamental cedar against their home. If there is no moisture, where will the sparks begin? In that cedar.”
“The wood that accumulates you against your house, is called an ignition zone of the house around your house. Clean as much as you can to eliminate anything that can start on fire, anything in which a spark will land that starts.”
Magda Zachara, director of the Firesmart program Canada said that in most cases, houses are burned by forest fires because the coals land in their property from a fire that can be several kilometers away.
“That is what causes destruction,” he said. “It is not the flame wall. It is the embers that are transported by the air.”
That’s why Firesmart CanadA, a national program that helps make neighborhoods in Canada more resistant against forest fires, says it is very important that people mitigate or protect the “immediate area” of a building or home. That is typically 1.5 meters around the structure, as well as the structure itself.
Eliminate combustible materials from that area increases possibilities From one surviving house by up to 90 percent, he said.
“If you are not going to focus on anything else, focus on this area and do it as non -combustible as possible. Eliminate anything that can easily light“
