SD73 students put through the paces at BC Wildfire Service junior fire crew program

The field work is always fun, but equally important is the classroom setting where students are taught lessons on fire behaviour and suppression tactics, water delivery, as well as safety and teamwork. For the students, though, it’s all about the outdoors and the physical nature of camp.

“It’s hard, for sure, but I think it’s really rewarding,” Willow Hart, a Grade 12 student at NorKam Secondary, told CFJC Today. “You’re doing these things that, honestly, you thought you couldn’t really do. It sucks in the moment, yeah, but it’s temporary.”

Fighting wildfires can be a tough and physically demanding job. It’s a lot of long days with little sleep in the wilderness – sometimes in isolation – but the feeling of protecting communities and saving lives is a calling to these hopeful recruits.

“I like the aspect of protecting the community,” said Luc Fawcett, a Grade 11 student at Sa-Hali Secondary. “Not trying to be a hero, but it’s about just helping people. Being a young man, it’s very easy to help the community.”

“I really like the outdoors and I don’t think I’d be a big fan of an office job,” added Ashton Cook, who is in Grade 12 at Sa-Hali Secondary. “I would like to help protect our community from wildfires because we’ve had some summers that were pretty bad with smoke.”

Hart was accepted into the program last year, but she wasn’t able to attend because of an injury. That has her extra motivated this year as she hopes to turn firefighting into a career.

“I used to want to just be a structural firefighter, but then I started learning about this course and I was like, ‘This is all I want,'” Hart said. “This is perfect. This is outdoors. This is fire. This is everything.”

While the primary goal of this camp is to give students a first-hand experience of what it’s like to be a part of the BC Wildfire Service, an added bonus is the possibility to be hired on as a junior crew member.

“I was part of camp in 2023 and I had the absolute honour to get chosen that year,” Huss added. “It’s been absolutely amazing since then. You learn a lot about yourself and about what your morals are, and you change so much every single year.”

Huss also wants potential recruits to not be afraid of failing, saying it helps build character.

“We want you to fall on your face because how you learn from it is the biggest thing,” Huss said. “If you’re good at everything right off the bat – which they haven’t been, which is fantastic – then life would be boring.”

“Even if people end up not getting the job and not going further with BC Wildfire, you learn so much [from the wildfire crews] based off of their experiences and their knowledge,” Hart added.

“I’m only in Grade 11, so I can’t make it this year,” Fawcett said. “You have to be in Grade 12, so I’ll come back next year. That’s for sure.”

by Victor Kaisar

SD73 students put through the paces at BC Wildfire Service junior fire crew program

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