2019 Fire Season: Alberta Bound

This year I was lucky enough to receive the Wildland Fire Digital Story Telling Grant through the American Wildfire Experience. My vision with this grant was to bring to light the changing conditions Wildfire Fighters are experiencing and the ever-mounting challenges we face. By documenting what we call “the new normal” through the eyes of a Wildfire Fighter I hope to bring people face to face with the affects of climate change and show how it’s manifesting itself in the world around us. I hope by contributing to the story of Wildfire we can start connecting some crucial pieces to the puzzle of how to live alongside these natural phenomenas.

2019 was a much needed recovery year for British Columbia’s Wildfire Service but that didn’t mean that Canadian Wildfire Firefighters got to take the summer off. While BC recovered with cooler temperatures Northern Alberta experienced an unprecedented fire season. Extreme drought conditions in extreme fuel types set the stage for some of the most volatile fire behaviour that the Rangers had ever encountered. Alberta’s wildfire fighting capacity was stretched to the limits with a total of 803,000 hectares of forest burnt between March 1st and June 24th. Resources from all over Canada and the US were being poured into the firefighting effort with the majority, including ourselves, heading to the High Level fire. With a grande total of 350,134 hectares burnt and roughly 4750 people evacuated this fire was the provinces top priority wildfire. The Rangers spent two back-to-back 19 day deployments in High Level fighting the odds as temperatures sat in the high 20s low 30s coupled with low humidity and frequent wind events that gusted up to 75 km/hr. With drought conditions so extreme that old prediction models where being rendered irrelevant operations was having a hard time coming up with a viable game plan that didn’t compromise their crews safety and we watched as an 80,000 hectare fire continued to relentlessly double in size under these unfavourable conditions. We were constantly beat back and tactical withdrawals from the line were a regular occurrence. When fire behaviour is that intense, crews work on steering the fire in certain directions and away from valuables. Indirect tactics such as large scale burn offs were highly effective and created a buffer zone around the town of High Level. By the end of June the weather finally started to turn and it looked like Alberta would be in the rear view mirror for the rest of the summer.

The rest of the season was spent in the Coastal mountains of the NorthWest were we faced steep terrain and challenging danger trees. Coastal trees tend to be much bigger and in this particular stand the Hemlocks were exceptionally dangerous. Common characteristics were rotten holes half way up the stem that would catch on fire and burn the tree from the inside out almost undetected. By the time the tree was ready to fail it was too late to anything about it and a 150 foot high tree with a diameter of 4 feet would snap in half and slam into the ground with a crash like thunder. Every day you'd hear the cannon-like booms and hope that the next one wasn’t going to be too close. However the Danger Tree Fallers were exceptional at getting to the trees that posed a threat to our ground crews and there was almost no close calls. I’m sure the fallers would beg to differ.

As the season winds down and comes to an end our days are filled with Fuel Management Projects, training and, as always, speculation. It’s hard to say wether or not the upcoming fire seasons will reflect what has become the ‘new normal’. It seems that if British Columbia isn’t having a record breaking fire season you merely have to look to one of our fellow Provinces to see that they’re engaged in a dog fight similar to that which we experienced over the last couple years. Wildfire is unpredictable and you can’t be sure whats going to happen until it’s right on your doorstep. The BC Wildfire Service is taking more action than ever to ensure that preventative measures are put in place to lessen the effects of Wildfire. The trend of bad wildfire seasons definitely seems to be on the rise but so does our ability to adapt, handle and understand these natural phenomena. I hope that these images provide a little insight into what that looks like and that you come away with better understanding of what it means to be a Wildfire Fighter.

The Rangers, based out of Telkwa British Columbia

Early Season workouts in the Bay shaking off that off-season rust.

The Rangers spend most of the Early Season in March and April searching and destroying Pine Beetle.

‘Red and Dead’ is slang for Pine that has been killed by the Pine Beetle, highly flammable and characterized by the rust color of its needles.

Chris Pendray burning off some of the fuel management piles made in the previous year.

The column that greeted our arrival to High Level

High Level was placed under an immediate evacuation alert that gave residents a total of 4 hours to pick up and leave.

Jason Oliemans Marching into the fray as a Medium heli buckets overhead

The view from fire camp on the out-skirts of High Level. With the rapid and unpredictable growth of the fire, we found ourselves sleeping within 200 metres of the active flame-front. A burn off was conducted to bring the fire to the highway and this was the result.

To navigate Albertas notoriously swampy ground crews are transported in Hagglunds which are light tanks on tracks originally designed for the Swedish Army.

Black Spruce is renowned in the fire fighting community for its extreme fire behaviour. Within a matter of minutes a small flame can find its way into the canopy of these small trees and start a crown to crown high intensity flame front that is almost impossible to stop.

Putting it to bed, long patrol days seeking and destroying the remnants of heat that exist along the edge of the fire perimeter and pose the risk of reigniting.

Marching into the Coastal Mountains a couple hours West of Bell II.

Adam Burdett the Rangers Crew Supervisor quarterbacking operations in a nuked cut block.

A Belly Tank opening up and cooling down a hot spot before crews get to it.

Trail crews are responsible for creating a path through the forest, tight-lining fires-edge to ensure ease of access and egress. They work in pairs with a ‘cutter’ operating chainsaw and a ‘swamper’ removing debris and fine-tuning the trail behind.

Some of the trail crew waiting for Fallers to finish up ahead.

Fast hands working on getting a chain saw back in the fight. With limited resources at hand, cutters must become well-acquainted with small engine maintenance and be able to get a saw back up and running with maybe a bit of duct tape and a bar wrench.

A flight over the fire has revealed some spot fires burning above us. Jason and I have received coordinates and are about to track them down.

With fog so thick you couldn’t see 15 feet in front of you the crew enjoys a moment to warm up and let the weather pass on.

Danger tree falling in Coastal wood is challenging due to the sheer size of the trees that grow here. Special falling procedures are required and only the most experienced fallers are given the go ahead to work.

Firefighters are required to master many different skills in the bush and one of them is Danger Tree Falling. A crucial piece of the firefighting effort, danger tree fallers remove compromised trees that pose an imminent threat to ground crews.

A shot of myself taking out a rotten Hemlock that is burning up top. What we call a ‘Chico’. I had to fall the tree high because the base was so decomposed.