News and opinion about wildland fire
Our friends at Prepared BC in British Columbia put together this graphic about about preparing your home to resist a wildfire.
And, when disaster hits, there may not be time to collect emergency supplies. Ensure you have grab-and-go kits for your home, office and vehicle. They should all contain water and supplies for a minimum of 72 hours.
Saskatchewan Premier wants a national fire cache and a fire mapping plane
The Premier of Saskatchewan, Brad Wall, wants the national government to establish a national cache of firefighting supplies and equipment that could be distributed when a province, or provinces, have multiple large fires ongoing. Perhaps he is thinking of a system similar to the one used in the United States, which has a national cache in Boise at the National Interagency Coordination Center.
“Some of those basic things that we would normally just call Manitoba or B.C. and say, ‘We need these things,’ well they were all fighting fires,” Mr. Wall said Wednesday. “Why, as a country, wouldn’t we have a cache? A national store to draw from if there is an occasion again where so many provinces are involved in fighting major fires?”
Mr. Wall also would like the see Canada acquire and operate a fire mapping plane that would use infrared detection equipment to see through smoke to map the perimeters and intensely burning areas of wildfires.
“If we could have at least one of those available nationally to provinces, because when it’s smokey, you have this whole flight … that’s grounded, and you might lose a little bit of ground that you might otherwise gain in better weather,” Wall said.
Wall will raise the idea at the premiers meeting in St. John’s, where he was heading on Wednesday.
Another drone shuts down aerial firefighting equipment
Sunday afternoon firefighting air tankers had to cease their operations on a fire near Yucaipa, California for about eight minutes when a drone was spotted over the fire.
Firefighting soldier takes bathroom break, gets lost for six hours
One of the 600 soldiers helping to suppress wildfires in Saskatchewan took a break to relieve himself Monday and didn’t return. His absence was noticed at 2 p.m. and a search began.
Below is an excerpt from an article at CBC.ca:
“I am happy to report, he is uninjured except for his pride, and many lessons, a number of lessons to be learned about this,” Brig.-Gen. Wayne Eyre said.
The Canadian Army said the soldier, one of some 600 from the Prairies deployed in the forest fire zone, had walked into the forest to relieve himself in privacy and got lost.
When others noticed he was missing at around 2:20 p.m. CST, a massive search began, involving soldiers, the Wildfire Management Centre, the RCMP, Canadian Rangers and other agencies.
The search virtually shut down firefighting in the area yesterday afternoon.
Eyre acknowledges that there should have been a buddy system in place, and the soldier, described as experienced, should have stayed in one spot.
Around 8:30 p.m., he was found.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on 102 Australian fire personnel assisting with wildfires in Canada 
Country Fire Authority members in Australia were among 42 Victorian emergency management personnel who left recently for Canada to help fight the worsening wildfires in British Columbia and Alberta.
They’re part of a 102-strong Australian contingent organized by State Control Centre – Emergency Management Victoria who will spend the next 6 weeks filling specialist leader roles in operations, planning, air attack and incident control.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on Man’s house burned while he loaded air tankers with retardant 
While Geordie Ferguson was loading fire retardant into air tankers to fight the Puntzi Lake Fire 130 kilometers (81 miles) west of Williams Lake, British Columbia, he found out that his house burned in the fire. But he kept loading air tankers.
A GoFundMe account has been set up for Mr. Ferguson.
Below are excerpts from an article at GlobalNews.ca:
As his house burned to the ground, Geordie Ferguson was doing what he always does: thinking about others.
“I had a job to do,” says the man who loaded 29 planes with fire retardant on the day he lost his home next to Puntzi Lake.
“I could not put myself first. I could not hold my head down and pout and cry. I had planes to load, I had more houses to save. I had a community depending on me to do my job, and I did it.”
Ferguson works as a loader technician for ICL Canada. For the last eight years, he’s lived in a home on the shores of Puntzi Lake, driving 15 minutes each day to his job at the Royal Canadian Air Force station on Puntzi Mountain.
In the summer, he services the many planes using the base to fight fires throughout the Chilcotin and Cariboo regions.
“We supply the manpower, pumps and retardants to forestry for loading the aircraft for fighting the forest fires. Those guys are my heroes. The guys in the aircraft, the ground crew, everyone involved [in fighting fires] is a stellar person,” said Ferguson.
He made a quick call to a friend, who confirmed that while his house was gone, his dog had escaped and was being taken care of.
Then Ferguson went back to work. He’s stayed there, working and sleeping at the base, ever since.
“I don’t want to go anywhere else. Once I learned my dog was safe, I was staying here. Anyone who was trying to get me out of here, win lose or draw, it’d be one hell of a fight. I am here, I’m going to load planes,” he says.
“All I wanted could do is make sure I could save other people’s houses and some lives in between, and be supportive of ground crew. Everything else is immaterial.”
Ferguson lost everything but his dog, wallet, iPhone, iPad and pickup truck.
“I had a lot of things, but I can get new things. None of that matters to me. None of that is important in life. It’s what I signed up to do, and the job that I have is a proud, prestigious job, and I love it. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
“I’m just a simple man, and everyone deserves more of a prop than I do. They hired me to load planes, and come hell or high water, I’m going to load planes,” he says.
“I was brought up old-school. There was no whining, or would ofs, or thinking about yourself. Think about others. And let’s get the job done, and we’ll work out all the other stuff later.”…
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on Structures destroyed in Puntzi Lake Fire in B.C. 
Multiple structures have been destroyed in a 7,000-hectare (17,300-acre) wildfire at Puntzi Lake about 130 kilometers (81 miles) west of Williams Lake, British Columbia.
The Cariboo Regional District reported on July 10 that one resort, two permanent homes, one seasonal home and multiple outbuildings on a total of four properties were confirmed lost as a result of the Puntzi Lake fire. All affected property owners have been notified.
The video below shows the impacts to the structures near the shore of Puntzi Lake.
As of July 11 approximately 90 properties were affected by an Evacuation Order and 183 properties were in the Evacuation Alert area, according to the Cariboo Regional District.
Firefighting resources on scene July 11 from the BC Wildfire Service included two airtankers, four helicopters, 102 firefighters, 26 support personnel and 9 pieces of heavy equipment.
A single engine air tanker fighting the fire crashed in Puntzi Lake Friday afternoon, July 10. The Air Tractor 802-F Fire Boss amphibious air tanker was scooping water from the lake at about 2:15 p.m. when the Conair plane had some sort of difficulty and sank. The pilot was not injured, according to Bill Yearwood with Transportation Safety Board.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized5 Comments on 130 U.S. firefighters deployed to wildfires in Canada Five wildland fire suppression crews and 30 fireline management personnel are being mobilized to Canada to assist with fire suppression operations. Canada is experiencing an intense fire season and has requested wildland firefighting assistance from the United States.
The five 20-person wildland fire suppression crews were dispatched through the National Interagency Coordination Center in Boise, Idaho. Four of the crews are comprised of U.S. Forest Service firefighters from California, while one is a hotshot crew from the National Park Service in Estes Park, Colorado. The crews and the fireline management personnel will arrive in Edmonton, Alberta and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, over the weekend and will deploy to wildland fire incidents in both provinces. The U.S. also sent one heavy air tanker, a BAe-146, to Grande Prairie, Canada on July 5.
