(BC Wildfire Service).

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Frontline firefighters are the heroes of this terrible summer

Aug 21, 2021 | 6:35 AM

FIGHTING WILDFIRES is one of the toughest jobs on earth. You won’t find it on those lists of “worst jobs” that include the likes of roadkill collector and portable toilet cleaner, nor the “most dangerous jobs” like roofers and loggers and that’s probably because we take wildland firefighters for granted.

We seldom see them, after all, because we’re at home and they’re out there in the bush, often in treacherous terrain. Out there in the bush, it’s smoky, dirty, incredibly hot, and risky. The work is hard, and the hours are long.

They often have to hike into a fire zone with heavy packs, sometimes chain sawing through deadfall and vegetation, hauling it out of the way, and digging fire breaks with hand tools.

Other times, they set up those big water bladders so they can hose down hot spots, using fire lines plowed out with bulldozers when they can. They usually work in the middle of nowhere but more and more often they must fight on the very edge of a community, and we notice them then.

By the end of the day, they’re black with soot and tired to the bone. For this, they get an average of $21.17 an hour in B.C., according to the indeed.com jobs website. Sometimes they work for the B.C. Wildfire Service, sometimes for contractors, so it varies. BC Wildfire Service calls the work “a challenge, an adventure and an opportunity to make a difference.”

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Applicants go through an interview process, must pass a fitness test and be trained in things like handling water delivery systems, burning off and backfiring, fireline communications and safety and wildfire entrapment. Employment usually goes to the end of the season in the fall. I like to tell the story of my firefighting experience when I was 18. In those days, you didn’t need training to get a job firefighting — all you did was show up at a fire (though tales of recruiters sweeping through beer parlours and enlisting any able-bodied boozer they could find are legendary).

One summer’s day a fire exploded just outside of town, so a buddy and I decided to go make some money. When we got there, a crew chief handed me a clipboard and told me my job was to walk along the fire break signing up others who had come.

I figured this was a sweet deal, certainly easier than swinging an axe or a Pulaski. As I walked along taking names, I remember seeing a rabbit emerge from under some dirt stirred up by the bulldozed break where it had buried itself in an attempt to get away from the fire. After a couple of hours or so, I ran out of people to sign up, so I began retracing my steps, only to discover the fire had jumped the guard both behind and in front of me.

Surrounded by fire on all sides, with no apparent escape, I tried not to panic. Suddenly, like the parting of the Red Sea, an opening appeared, and I charged through it, the flames on either side of me.

By the time I found my way through, and eventually found the fire camp, I was utterly exhausted and filthy. No tents had been set up yet; there was only bare ground to collapse on. Technology and training have, obviously, much improved since then but the experience left me with a lasting impression of the conditions under which firefighters work.

It takes a big team of people with a wide variety of skills to fight a wildfire, of course. I was driving down Fortune Drive a couple of weeks ago when I noticed a pickup truck at the stop light beside me with Coquitlam Fire Department on the door.

Since the passenger-side window was open I looked over and thanked the guys in the truck for coming up to help. When I asked if they thought they’d get a break any time soon, the guy in the passenger seat replied, “It’s going to be a long summer.”

Fire departments from all over the province have come up to take a turn, and it’s a true international effort as firefighters from Mexico, Australia and the U.S. typically assist as well, though this intense season worldwide has made it harder to get that help.

The City of Kamloops issued a media release Thursday giving itself deserved kudos for its good work along with its partners on providing emergency services for evacuees. And, of course, nobody’s forgetting the pilots and the volunteers and utilities workers and everyone else who steps up.

But, to me, it’s the frontline firefighters who are the true warriors, who symbolize the entire battle against these devastating wildfires. How deflating it must be, after another exhausting shift trying to save homes and lives, to read and hear criticisms of the firefighting effort.

Rumours and claims abound about how 60,000-hectare conflagrations could have been stamped out when they were still spot fires if quicker action had been taken or local volunteers had been allowed in. Some of them might be true. But that’s all about policies and red tape that haven’t kept up with the times. The $21-an-hour folks and all the others putting in horrendous hours under crushingly stressful conditions are the heroes of this terrible summer.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.