Crewmember Initiation

Training, training, training - June 30 - July 11

So Paul has quit. Officially. Which meant that a new crewmember could finally be hired for our crew. He arrived at base once we got back from our our days off after our trip up north (which consisted of an incredible whirlwind trip to Montreal!!!). His name is Devin and before this he was an EFF in Kenora - part of the West Fire Region - for a month and a half, which meant he had all his training and was ready to start right away. Wooo! A full crew at last :)


Even though he was trained our crew leader wanted to see how we worked together as a crew, so we went over all the initial training again. I really didn't mind because
a) I didn't get to complete a lot of it because of how complicated my crew situation was
b) it is more fun than just being at base.

But it was hardcore! Here's some basics:

2:35 - My current pump set-up time (in minutes); It's faster than the 3:00min max, but still slower than it should be
20 - Hose lengths we laid in training
35 - Average humidex this week. Ugh!

Wednesday, June 30 - Introductions
We met our crew member today and got him all of his gear. Pretty soon he was all set up and then we had a crew meeting to explain the crew rules and expectations. We chatted a lot and I found out that he's a climber too! And apparaently, a pretty experienced one too - he's been on climbing trips in Peru and Mexico...so jealous! Although there aren't too many places around here, he's heard of a few and convinced me to buy my own harness, which is all we need because he has all of the other equipment.

Thursday, July 1st - Canada Day!!
In a random draw our crew was chosen to work the holiday. Woooo double bubble! We spent the day recycling equipment and at the end of the day Devin moved his stuff into Stan's place. It is a super cheap, but dingy room in an unfinished basement lol, but on the positive side he'll have his own bathroom and be living with a bunch of young fire-fighters from base :)
Everyone had been partying all day, so once I finished work I joined in. Such good times! Cochrane had quite the fireworks show set up on the lake too - def blew my mind!! This is Katie - Erik's sister - and I trying to be tough...yaaaaa nope

Friday, July 2nd - Pump Training
Today Glen wanted to see how Devin set pumps up and that is exactly what we did - in multiple different spots. At first we set one up together and then he started timing each of our seperate set-ups to see who could get the fastest time. Ideally you want a time under 3:00 minutes, but in competitions it should be under 2:00 minutes. I did much better than I previously had, but I was still a lil over 2:30, while Devin was just slightly under 2:30. Still need practice! I hate to say it, but the second spot was just gross. It was a shallow creek filled with shit and slime, which emitted a horrendous stench. So nasty!

Saturday, July 3rd - Pump Troubleshooting
Now that Glen had seen us set up pumps in normal conditions, it was time to troubleshoot. There's no easing into this either. He threw the whole pump into a deep creek and it was our job to fish it out, empty the water and get it started. Unfortunately there was a ton of water in it, and then the recoil broke, which meant that we had to hand-wind a piece of sash cord. If we had followed procedure and tested the pump before we left base then the recoil problem could have been caught, so the huge lesson for the day was to ALWAYS run the pump up after you sign it out of the warehouse. It didn't help that it was pouring rain the whole time lol. After two hours of fixing, multiple emptyings and even a removal of the muffler, we finally got it started. Phew!

Sunday, July 4th - Hose Lays and Complex Pump Setups

Setting up the pump is just one part of fighting a fire, so we trained hose lays today. The temperatures and humidity were ridiculously high, so before we even got started we were all dripping in sweat. Obviously we still had to set up a pump and Glen created a scenario where the Pump Tool Kit had been forgotten (this actually happens), which means we had no gas line, no rope, no electrical tape, no foot valve (a filter for the intake hose) and no tools. We found ways to get everything working in a hand-made way, although there was some gas spillage before we finally got it figured out, but all of us were soaking wet from standing in the creek. Glen was happy with the set-up and we started laying hose. Halfway through, Glen added to the scenario by telling us that a bear had chewed through the intake hose, and that we would have to re-set-up the pump without an intake hose. This requires tipping the pump head into the water and we totally messed up at first by submerging our home-made gas line. Oops! We got it working though and finished laying the rest of the hose. After a short break it was time to melon all the hose again. Then we were done and received a 'well done' from Glen. :)

Monday, Tues and Wed July 5th-7th - Rainy, Muggy and Yucky
The weather turned gross. Really gross. The temperatures stayed super high, but the humidity went even higher, leaving us sweating and taking refuge in the airconditioned trucks. The area around the vents got covered in water from the humid air condensing on the cold plastic! We spent the days preparing for the upcoming chainsaw course. My crew leader is leading it, so he had to pick a spot to cut in and make sure that all the people taking the course were ready for it.
Baseball - On Wednesday I was convinced to go out and play baseball. I hadn't played since grade 8, so I was definitely a little nervous, but it was all in good fun. I even made a big catch :)
At the end of the game they convinced me to join the MNR team, so I guess I will have to learn lol. After baseball we went to a swimming hole called 'Deadman's' because a guy drove his car into it and died about 10 years ago. There's a ten foot dock there and in true Jaana style I managed to hurt myself in the most ridiculous manner. I succesfully did a front flip, and then tried a dive, but the forward momentum propelled my legs over my head and I landed upside perfectly flat on the water. Not only did it kind of knock the wind out of me, but I got huge welts all up my left thigh, wich turned into a super angry bruise the next day :(

Thu and Fri July 8 + 9 - DAYS OFF
These were filled with relaxing, going to the gym and partying. Some cooking got in there too, and Erik's mom made us ribs on Friday. Deliciiiious! On Thursday I played my first real baseball game with the MNR team...let's just say that I need a bit of practice. Juuust a bit. But I'm determined. I also bought my climbing harness - it should arrive in about a week!  The bugs have started to get super bad though. Black flies are gone, but mosquitoes are out in full force. You see them breed all over the place.

Sat and Sun July 10-11 - Base rats again
Glen led the chainsaw course both these days, so the rest of our crew (Stan, Devin and I) were off alerts and stuck on base. A bunch of equipment came in from a project fire, so we spent the days retrieving it all. By the end of today the recycle room finally started looking normal again, without huge piles of used equipment laying everywhere. Speaking of the fire, it had a huge bear problem. Two tents got mauled (luckily no one was in them) and the bears were spotted numerous times, so all of the crews got pulled out and put in hotels. So scary!! The chainsaw course ended today and Erik passed along with everyone else - I can't wait to do mine...hopefully next year! Tomorrow we'll be a full crew again and back on alerts. In our region there were five new starts today, so as long as we don't get a ton of rain, there's a good chance that we'll be going on one soon.

North Bound

Fort Severn Etc. 

I can now say that I have been to all the most northerly communities in Ontario. On Sunday we left for Fort Severn and began our mission: creating a community safety plan against forest fires for every reserve north of Moosenee. This involved identifying water sources and measuring how much hose was required to protect the values on the perimeter of the community. In five days we traveled down the Hudson Bay coast to five reserves:

Fort Severn
Peawanuck
Attawapiskat
Kashechewan
Fort Albany

Although I was familiar with reserves, this trip has opened my eyes to a whole new type of life and served as a huge reality check. Huddeled in the midst of the Hudson Bay Lowlands, these river-side communities live a simple life full of tradition, but it is punctuated by extreme isolation, poverty, teenage pregnancy and the abuse of drugs and alcohol. But it is not the same in every reserve: some are well taken care of, with mowed lawns, clean driveways and general organization, but some are a mess of bare gravel, excess garbage and crime. Some stats of my trip:

26 - Belugas Whales
2 - dead Caribou being gutted
4 - dry reserves (empty bottles still litter the ground all over the place)
1 - times I had cell phone service (in Fort Severn)
1 - times our plane got broken into
0 - Polar Bears I saw (they don't come off the ice till July)
Uncountable - Black Flies, Horse Flies, Teepees and Big Canoes

Flying there - FIVE hours!

The only way to reach these communities is by air - the highway only goes as north as Cochrane and the train only reaches Moosenee - so we packed all our food and bags into the "Turbo Beaver", a small sea plane. We had to stop twice for fuel! Once we hit James Bay we saw the ice had started to recede and we even saw a pack of Beluga whales after we got to Hudson Bay. Flying over the landscape is extremely lonely: hardly any trees, tons of bog and absolutely no civilization for hours. What I didn't expect was the dirt runways that each reserve has - no pavement in sight!

Fort Severn

My first impression was of HOLY HORSE FLIES. They were everywhere and they were absolutely huge. Then I saw the small, rundown buildings surrounded by disorderly stacks of empty fuel barrels, garbage and rusting machinery. All of the roads were gravel and hardly any cars drove on them, but 4x4s roared around like crazy. Our Inn's windows had metal bars on the windows, because apparently the locals like to throw rocks at the windows of visitors. The police stayed at the inn as well because their building was set on fire. Because they had no jail cells they used the police trucks!!! After supper we went whale watching, and didn't see any, but two caribou were shot and we saw them get gutted. The guy's knife was totally dull, so he asked to use mine - it is now christened I guess lol. On the way home we saw a crazy bright double-rainbow. So cool!
The actual measurement process started in the morning and was easy enough, but very tedious.

Peawanuck
The difference here was like night and day. It was the only reserve that allows alcohol, but it was the nicest. The lawns had grass, which was mowed, the houses were built in neat subdivisions, there was no garbage and the neat shoreline was lined with boats in much better condition than those in Fort Severn. Our bunk house was also much nicer and even had a BBQ, so we made a delicious steak dinner.

Attawapiskat 
This was another kind of dirty reserve. It was by far the largest - even had a PizzaHut outlet! - but piles of garbage and broken down cars littered almost every yard. Interestingly though, a fire was burning outside of the town while we were there, so we went to go see it. Sweet! This evening our crew leader cooked (I usually do) and he made a deadly spicy chili. Stan got quite the sweaty brow!
To the right is the Treatment Centre for Drug and Alcohol abuse, located in the boonies outside of Attawapiskat. Love the building!


Kashechewan

Glen warned us that this would be the worst off reserve and lo and behold it was. Fires aren't really a problem here, but floods are and apparently they never clean up after them. Graffiti was definitely the worst here and weirdly enough, red Xs were painted on most of the houses. I saw a group of boys play baseball in an open area covered in gravel and garbage. I couldn't help but feel sorry for them. We didn't want to stay here overnight, so we finished our job quickly and flew back over the river to Fort Albany, the last reserve we had to create a plan for.

Fort Albany

Even from the air you could tell that this reserve had it together. On an evening walk I was able to confirm this. The houses were larger, lawns were mowed again, new log cabins were being built and it didn't have the same kind of poverty aura the others had. Although it was the nicest reserve, it was not the safest. I say this because at 3am that night our plane got broken into!! Before they set off the Emergency Locator Transmitter they blew up all the life jackets, cut a couple wires, stole a fire extinguisher and spread tuna all over the plane!! Needless to say, our pilot was super stressed. Luckily this only delayed our departure by a few hours! The flight home was much shorter than the earlier one, and we only stopped once for fuel, in Moosonee. Such a good trip!