Firefighters head west

When Kevin Carreira woke up on Monday morning, he had no idea his day would end in Dryden, his week in the wilds of Alberta fighting a forest fire run out of control.

By 10:30 a.m. he was starting to pack his gear, readying for a 19-day stint away from home, his birthday celebrations put on hold yet again.

Though unconventional, it’s the life the Ministry of Natural Resources firefighter signed up for, knowing he could be shipped out at any time to help combat out-of-control blazes like the one that forced the immediate evacuation of 7,000 people in Slave Lake, Alta. on Sunday.

He’s nervous, knowing he’s heading toward a fire that everyone else is fleeing, but it’s something he’s done time and time again, so it’s not too worrisome, Carreira said.

“Safety is always No. 1 for everybody. It’s unfortunate what happened. We’re just hoping we can get out there and help out in any way that we can,” he said.

“We’re not too sure what to expect. Maybe some value protection. I know it’s in and around the city. There could be some firefighting. Either way we’re pretty much ready.”

According to national reports, more than a third of the town, located about 160 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, was destroyed.

Among the rubble is the town hall and library, hundreds of homes and the community’s only radio station.

Luckily no one appears to have been injured, despite the rapid movement of the fire, which crossed a highway and left no way out of the town until firefighters managed to open Highway 2 and led residents to safety.

Carreira said incidents like this, where firefighters are deployed across provincial lines, are becoming more and more commonplace.

“We try to keep somewhat of a standard. We’re working toward having a national standard so it’s the same everywhere,” he said.

It doesn’t make the reality any easier to handle.

“It gets tough to be away from your family and friends for 19 days. The time does fly by. Normally you work a lot of hours and rest on your downtime. You get a phone call every now and again. The MNR does what it can to make sure you can keep in touched with your loved ones,” he said.

The call to deploy came in through the Canadian Inter-Agency Firefighting Corporation, the governing body that decides where firefighting imports are coming from.

The decision is weighed along several factors, including how busy provincial forces are and the potential impact of removing dozens of firefighters might be.

Though Ontario does face plenty of its own peril in the wilderness – MNR firefighters battled 11 blazes last week alone – CIAFC officials felt they could spare about 85 employees to lend a hand in Alberta at this time.

“We have 10 four-person fire crews and a couple of strike team leaders heading to Alberta this week. We also have the same amount of people heading to Alberta from Eastern Ontario as well, said MNR-Thunder Bay fire management supervisor Dave Manol, 

“This is a fairly significant group, almost 100 staff heading to another province. Again, it’s fairly early in the season for this type of request, but it’s a significant export of resources.”

However, Manol cautioned, there are still 15 four-person crews in the region.

“We still have significant resources to protect things back home.”