Global Courant
MONTREAL –
The techniques used to put out the wildfires raging across Canada vary slightly depending on geography, but ultimately rely on people on the ground using hoses and shovels to dig out the hot spots one by one, experts say.
As of Thursday afternoon, there were 430 fires across Canada, including 235 that were out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center.
No matter how many fires there are, the tactics for putting them out remain largely the same, with a combination of airstrikes and firefighters working on the ground, said a longtime firefighter and former member of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources’ firefighting program.
Dave Cowan, who now trains new recruits at the private company Fire 1, said that while airplanes can help stop a fire’s advance, the hard work to put it out is always done at ground level.
“The water bombers are a great support system, but they’re not going to put out the fire,” he said in an interview this week. “It’s that person with the shovel at the end of the day who’s going to put out that last hot spot.”
Cowan said firefighting tactics depend in part on the landscape. In Ontario and Quebec, where lakes abound, most of the work is done with water, either mixed with foam dropped from airplanes or pumped from lakes and rivers into hoses manned by firefighters on the ground.
In drier places, such as British Columbia, there is greater use of fire retardants — which are placed around the perimeter of the fire — and preventative burning to strip an area of vegetation that acts as fuel, he said.
Stephane Caron, a spokesperson for Québec’s forest fire prevention agency, known as SOPFEU, said that while firefighting tactics are consistent, the sheer number of fires in his province is forcing the agency to abandon its goal of containing all fires below the 51st parallel. to extinguish. .
“There are far too many (fires) to do that, so right now our goal is really tied to protecting communities, human lives and strategic infrastructure,” he said in an interview this week. He said the agency’s firefighting capacity is about 30 fires at a time. There were 133 fires in the province on Thursday.
With scarce resources, “our goal is not necessarily to go until the fire is out, but to contain it and hopefully control it to be able to start treating another fire.”
Caron said the first line of attack against a fire is the water bomber plane, which can carry about 6,000 gallons of water and must pass every 10 to 12 minutes to be effective.
However, he said the plane can only help contain a fire. It is the firefighters on the ground who put out a fire, not only above ground with hoses, but also underground. That is done using a tool known as a Pulaski, similar to an axe, to dig into spots where the fire is hiding below the surface.
The biggest challenge in the current situation, he said, is that fires are happening simultaneously in several provinces at the same time, straining resources usually shared between provinces and forcing agencies to look abroad for reinforcements .
Roger Collet, wildfire management officer with the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources, says fire attempts start with finding a spot that provides a good escape route, then attacking the fire on the flanks before moving to the head.
He said that while tactics have not changed substantially in recent years, they are constantly being refined through improvements in technology that helps predict and monitor fires. For example, drones provide a cheaper and easier way to monitor a fire than helicopters. “They’re always adapting the technology,” he said.
The experts agree that when a fire breaks out, workers may need to back down and focus on building defenses to protect homes, businesses and critical infrastructure such as communications towers. This can be done by using a bulldozer to level a piece of land and create a firebreak near the structures, or by preemptively burning the vegetation.
Both Caron and Cowan say the biggest danger to firefighters isn’t encompassed by the fire, which is being closely monitored, but rather injuries from falling trees, falls or heat stroke. The job is very demanding for firefighters, who must contend with heat from the fires, mud and water, and difficult terrain.
“You walk through the undergrowth, which consists of logs lying there and hills and rocks,” he said. “It’s not like walking a city block. I’ll tell you, it’s very demanding and it’s hot.”
He notes that a fire isn’t considered completely “out” until firefighters can walk all the way to the center of a burned area and make sure there are no hot spots left that could reignite and start another blaze.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 9, 2023.
