A helicopter carrying water flies over heavy smoke from an out-of-control fire in a suburban community outside of Halifax that spread quickly, engulfing multiple homes and forcing the evacuation of local residents on May 28, 2023.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
Municipal firefighters in Halifax who battled a devastating wildfire over several weeks last spring in the city’s wooded suburbs didn’t have adequate training, experience or equipment, says a new report produced by Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency.
The report comes at a time when municipal firefighters are more often confronting fires in the wildland-urban interface, a term for the space between the forest and populated land, said Ken McMullen, president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs. Unlike in Europe, municipal firefighters in Canada don’t have in-depth wildland firefighting training; they are trained to respond to structure fires, and they also use different protective gear and equipment, he said.
“We’re at the intersection of risk,” said Mr. McMullen, whose organization represents 3,200 municipal fire departments and 126,000 firefighters. “Our communities are growing beyond what our natural boundaries have been and we’re more so now getting utilized in what our wildland firefighters do all the time.”
The number one risk in wildland firefighting is downed and falling trees, said Mr. McMullen. Calgary firefighter Morgan Kitchen died earlier this month after a tree fell on him as he worked on the fire in Jasper, which destroyed 30 per cent of the resort town.
In Alberta, where wildfires have been growing in ferocity and frequency in recent years, municipal forces have had to deal with several urban areas where fires have encroached on homes and businesses. In a report produced after the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire that forced the entire city to be evacuated, communication and co-ordination between provincial and municipal emergency services was flagged as an issue, where a unified command structure would have helped.
Across Canada, fire departments saw a 10-per-cent jump in 2023 for weather-related calls, including hurricanes, heat domes and wildfires, according to the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, which collects the data year over year. It has led the group to advocate the federal government for the creation of a national fire administration, like the one in the U.S., which oversees co-ordination of fire response and has a training academy and funding.
“We see the fire service playing such a key role in so many components of responses across Canada,” said Mr. McMullen, who is also the chief of emergency services in Red Deer, Alta. “We’re missing that voice at the table.”
Halifax is one of the fastest growing communities in Canada with expansive swaths of wilderness under development. The new report said these developments, compounded by the rising frequency of wildfires owing to climate change, are changing the risk profile in Halifax’s wildland-urban interface.
The report said firefighters had injuries because of improper footwear, worked in wet inappropriate clothing, and had inadequate protective equipment and vehicles unsuitable for off-road during the May and June wildfire that burned more than 900 hectares, required the evacuation of 16,400 people, and resulted in the loss of 151 homes and 49 buildings.
Among the 52 recommendations in the report was a call to update the city’s wildland-urban interface strategy, firefighter training, public education, wildland fire equipment, technology and vehicles.
“Specific to firefighter training, there should be an added focus on wildland firefighting knowledge and skill,” said the report. While Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency firefighters do complete a curriculum on wildfires in their training, most of their focus and continuing practice is in structural firefighting, it added.
Halifax Professional Fire Fighters Association, a union representing about 500 members, says the report failed to address problems with leadership, accountability and management. “There has been no significant action to prepare for future incidents – no new training, insufficient new resources, and no communication from the newly hired wildfire mitigation program manager,” said the association in a statement.
Association president Brendan Meagher said the report overlooked poor planning and implementation, and he demanded immediate action “to ensure that our firefighters are properly supported and equipped to handle future emergencies.”
Association vice-president Joe Triff said firefighters felt frustrated during last year’s fire because of delays in being called in to work, while members saw their homes burn down or were evacuated themselves. By the time they were called in, he said it was apocalyptic. “There were not enough breathing apparatuses, no hoses.”
Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency’s newly hired wildfire mitigation program manager Kara McCurdy said three new wildland fire trucks have been purchased and a few should be on the road by next year. Other new equipment, including a structure protection trailer with 30 to 100 sprinklers and a fire scope camera, which detects wildfire smoke, are out for tender. She said the new wildfire strategy is underway and hopes to make it public in the late fall.
“The world is changing,” said Ms. McCurdy. “We’re just going to have to change the way we do things.”