BC Fire Tour - At MAX POWER!

19 Days Fighting Fires in BC
Sat. Jul 30th - Wed. Aug 18th

I can't really summarize this trip other than to say that it was spectacular; much more so than I could have ever imagined. We saw intense fire behaviour, I learned a ton, met some awesome people and took some great pictures. I apologize for the length of this post, but I couldn't cut out anymore than I already have. Enjoy!
First off, some stats:
*300+hrs - Worked in 18 days!
*4400 kms - Added to our brand new rental truck 
*12 days - We were on the fire line
Our fire:
*600 hectares - Size of our fire when we arrived
*2000 hectares - Size when we left
*40 000 hectares - Size it is today (currently the largest fire in BC)

5 days in transit: 
Cochrane to Sudbury - to William's Lake - to Prince George - to Smithers - to basecamp at Ootsa Lake
As you may have heard, BC is on fire. All over the place and growing exponentially. SOoo typically they ask for Ontario crews to come help out and our crew was one of the first ones shipped out. After making sure our bags weren't overweight, a bus with a crew from hearst already on it came to drive us to Sudbury. We flew out the next morning and landed in William's Lake, BC. The thick fog that I noticed while we landed turned out to be all smoke - the acrid smell overcame you before you even got on the tarmac!! This was when it really hit me: I was in BC in a seriously escalated fire phase, surrounded by forest fire fighters and about to experience one of the most intense experiences of my life. I almost felt a nauseous from the nervous excitement!

Our first stop was a steakhouse for our firstmass briefing. We learned that BC was experiencing fire behaviour even more extreme than last year! That night we all pitched our tents in a baseball diamond at the Stampede Grounds, as all the other hotels were full of firefighters. In the morning it was slow going, but by noon our 20-pack (5 crews of 4 people) received a dispatch and by 5:30pm we were on our way to fight fires in the north. The next two days were a blurr of driving through rolling hills, picking up equipment and after hour shenanigans which left our mark in Prince George and Smithers. It was too bad we couldn't stay in Smithers, as it was set at the base of a beautiful mountain, beside a pristine lake. Ooo well. On day 5 we backtracked a bit through Burns Lake en route to our basecamp at Ootsa Lake, which is normally used as a logging camp (in the winter months). We were the second group to arrive, but soon the camp was at its capacity and housed ~180 firefighters. It was basically fire camp heaven:
- single rooms
- hot showers
- recreation room
- and cooks provided a hot breakfast and dinner and a sandwhich buffet for brown bag lunches. Sweet!
- complete with a lake, which we all rushed to cool off in. Little did we know that we would never go swimming there again because of our hours.

11 Days on the Fireline 
Thu. Aug 5th - Day 1 Our fire was over 2 hrs away, so we woke up at 5:00am to make our 6:00am departure. Halfway I realized I forgot my crew leader's lunch!!! Soo lucky he didn't freak out completely! Upon arrival we started mopping up the fire as it was 95% contained. This consisted of patrolling 50 ft into the bush from the bulldozer line. Everything seemed dead, and only toward the end of the day did we find some smokes. To put them out we had to use the typical BC econoflo hose, which is basically a garden hose, unlike the 1"1/2 hose we use. It was definitely a learning experience because you had to be much more aggressive with handtools, as we were working with a fraction of the water and pressure that we did in Ontario.
Fri. Aug 6th - Day 2 More mop-up, in a different area, but this time we had to move a hose line closer to the fireline because they originally had it on the dozer line (aka catguard...b/c its made by a Caterpillar dozer :p) which they built 200-300 ft away from the fireline. Here we actually found some pretty deep hot spots and I got to practice nozzling :)
Sat. Aug 7th - Day 3 DUST and more DUST. It smothers the outside of our truck, coats the interior and clogs the filters; if we're too close to another truck it chokes each breath you take, so getting out first is always a race. Our radio display even died momentarily today! More hotspots today, but nothing exciting. I practiced my pulaski abilities on an unassuming fallen tree and realized that wielding a pulaski will require some practice.
Sun. Aug 8th - Day 4 Moved to a new part of the fire today and watched a prescribed burn (when they purposefully burn a portion of forest between the catguard and the fireline to get rid of excess fuel). At the time, I figured this would be the most action we'd see, so I was excited.
Mon. Aug 9th - Day 5 Devin (or DW as we now call him) was assigned pump duty for the day. Unfortunately the pumps all had major problems, so he was busy troubleshooting all day, running between the tandem set-ups. I went to turn on our own pump, which ended up having its own problems and while communicating this on the radio I got flustered and couldn't think of the proper terms. Some examples:
 - "pressure release valve" turned into "1-way" (because it only lets the water go one way is what I was probably thinking)
- "full throttle" turned into "full force" and then "MAX POWER"
Everyone on our 20-pack heard this and 'max power' turned into a running joke...o man.

Tue. Aug 10th - Day 6 The long hours are catching up to us (mostly 16/17 hour days!) and everyone is getting tired of this dead fire. The drive doesn't help us or the trucks for that matter, seeing as we have already had 7 FLAT TIRES!!! Four of these to the same truck! We did however see a coyote today. Other animals we've seen so far include a bear, moose, partridges, bald eagles and a ton of free range cows. The cows just beg to be ran into. Today started off very slow, but around 3:00pm the southwest corner of the fire started taking off and our crew went to join the other two fighting it. I saw my first tree torch right away and was spellbound. I helped drag hose through the bush and kept track of how many trees I saw torch until I realized that it would soon be impossible - the fire behaviour was too intense!   Helicopters came with some buckets and then we got pulled back to let the Airspray bomber drop retardant. To warn us of the dropzone area a bird-dog came through and did two dry runs. Hearing its siren is definitely exciting! On the second drop I managed to get some good pics. Once we returned to the hoseline, everything was covered in the red retardant its peppery smell joined the thick, smoke-filled air. By attacking the excursion fire on both sides, we managed to tie the hose lines in by 8pm. Glen said that this day was just like doing initial attack. It was definitely the most exciting day of my fire career so far!

Wed. Aug 11th - Day 7  We now have a crew song for the trip: "PornStar Dancing" by My Darkest Days. Its currently #1 on Octane, thesatellite radio rock station we listen to in the truck - look it up!
Right from the get-go today, the excursion fire from yesterday took off. We spent the whole day dealing with a ton of torching, massive spot fires, many lengths of burnt hose and lots of falling trees. Stan let me put out a flare-up where two trees were torching at the same time. I was making progress, but a helicopter came and dropped a bucket on it, which seriously helped. We finally tied our hose line in with a nearby lake and retreated for the day. Unfortunately the column looked just as big as when we went in 8 hours ago :(

By now the other fires in the area are getting bigger too, so the sky is covered in smoke almost the whole way home. Made for some cool sunset pictures!

Thu. Aug 12th - Day 8 Two bulls were fighting on the side of the road this morning! Crazy me got out of the truck to video-tape them...luckily they were pre-occupied. Today was basically the same story as yesterday, only the winds were stronger and we weren't able to catch it. We had succesfully put out a few large flare-ups, but then we found one that advanced like crazy. The wind carried the flames from crown to crown and even though we brought in hose from everywhere and were basically running beside it, it kept on going. It hit a swamp and slowed down, but soon a spotfire started on the other side and we started putting it out, but before long the wind was shifting toward us and we had to pull out of the flames. We lost a whole hoseline that day and two people's day-bags were burnt, but everyone got out alright. Everyone inhaled a ridiculous amount of smoke though and I came out with a chunk of singed hair! At this point, ground crews couldn't do anything more and we couldn't get much air support because we weren't the priority fire, so we had to watch from afar as the column grew and the fire ran up and over a hill. Its crazy how mesmerizing a column can be. I think its the sheer size that overwhelms.

Glen went up in the helicopter later and took pictures of the rank 5 fire rolling across the beetle killed pine forests. This little excursion fire ended up eating up 250 hectares in just a few hours!

Fri. Aug 13th - Day 9 Glen's lucky day: friday the 13th. Woo! The fire from yesterday was beyond our control, but even in the early AM, the area we were sent to was already taking off like crazy up the hill towards us, so we retreated. Our new assignment was to pull hose from yesterday's fire. Entering the newly burnt bush was surreal because the burnt trees, interrupted by red patches of retardant-covered moss were illuminated by this sunglasses-yellow created by the smoke filtered sunlight. Super eerie! We then prepared a guard at the bottom of the hill for a prescribed burn. Watching the bulldozers create the catguard was pretty exciting! We then proceeded to lay hose from the back of the truck - oh the comforts of a cat-guard! On the way home we stopped at a little island and every rookie proceeded to get thrown in the lake without more notice than: 'take your wallet out". Lots of fun, but super cold on the way home because I had no extra clothes.

Sat. Aug 14th - Day 10 First thing in the morning, our crew was sent to mark a bulldozer line along a new fireline and we almost made it to the catguard at the top of the hill when the fire started up again. The dozers behind us had to turn around and we ran out to the catguard just in time to see the flames jump up the trees. The wind picked up and without any further warning a large pile of blown down trees lit up and we were faced with an almost solid wall of flame. The flames pull on the wind was incredibly strong; you could feel the suction! Glen knew we were upwind of the fire, so we stayed to watch for a bit, but soon we decided to evacuate. As usual we stopped at the convenience store on the way home, but this time a little girl came up to us, pointed to the smoke hovering over the lake and asked "Does all that smoke mean we will have to get executed?" We all died laughing before we could answer her. Tonight is our last night at the camp! Even though the beginning wasn't excting, the past 10 days have swam into what seems like only a few. Tomorrow night we stay in Burns Lake, so we can start our journey home.

Sun. Aug 15th - Day 11 Resources have finally arrived on our fire, including more crews. Our crew spent the day pulling useable hose from an old line. Not the most exciting day to finish off with, but we didn't mind because we all felt pretty beat. Ten days of super long hours, hot temperatures and high adrenaline do you in! From what we could hear on the radio, the other areas of the fire were going crazy. As we drove away we saw a double bladed helicopter, which definitely means that its go-time. Once in Burns Lake, we were debriefed at the base and then headed to dinner where we toasted to a great trip. We relaxed by the lake the rest of the night, sharing stories and remembering all the funny incidents.

3 Days in Transit Reversed
Mon. Aug 16th - Bussing the 6 hours to William's Lake, where the other 150 Ontario firefighters were gathering. A local strip club was supposed to open on the weekend, but decided to open early just for us. A crazy, crazy night indeed!

Tue. Aug 17th - Before we flew to Sudbury, I stopped at the Cariboo base and saw a BC firefighter that was on my first fire with me :)
The Cariboo district was still experiencing major fires and the airport was actually clogged with helicopters! We counted 26, but there was so much smoke that it was hard to count. Incredible! Back in Sudbury we treated ourselves to The Keg, and proceeded to have one last big night together...at the Gold. Enough said :)
Wed. Aug 18th - Driving 4 hours back to Cochrane. Home sweet home! We all couldn't wait to start our two days off. It had been an incredibly amazing and unforgettable trip, but it was exhausting and relaxing had never sounded better!