In the snowy mountains outside Merritt, B.C., trainee firefighters go through the steps that an initial attack crew would take to contain new wildfires. Low snowpack and dry forecasts have put B.C. on guard for a long, tough wildfire season this year.
With snow coming down in sheets, the firefighters dropped their jerry cans, shrugged off their coiled hoses and, one after another, handed over heavy pumps to waiting instructors. They mopped their streaming faces, took a few deep breaths and headed back down the muddy hill to do the “gear carry” over and over again.
The drill, in which recruits repeatedly carry as much as 70 kilograms of gear up a steep hill for two hours straight, is meant to be “one of the toughest things you’ve ever done,” instructor Katelynn Harness said last week. But it’s more than just intentional suffering – it’s about each recruit proving to themselves what they are capable of.
And it’s an annual rite of passage for new recruits in the BC Wildfire Service, one of several on the final day of New Recruit Boot Camp. Instructors – some with decades of wildfire experience – can still recall their own battles on that hillside in the mountains above Merritt, B.C.
Mimi Kramer is preparing to test new skills she was not allowed to use in the last fire season.
For recruit Mimi Kramer, the challenge couldn’t come soon enough.
Ms. Kramer spent last season as a junior wildland firefighter on the BCWS’s Columbia Unit Crew. As a junior, she was like an apprentice – not allowed to drive vehicles, not allowed to “burn” (a firefighting tactic of lighting forest fuel such as leaves, sticks and brush to slow or contain a wildfire) – but a firefighter nonetheless.
“Being a junior isn’t just all fun and games, it does come with a lot of hardship as well,” she said. Like any other firefighter, Ms. Kramer often had to hike heavy loads of gear deep into the forest, help dig “hand guards” (small trenches that help slow a fire’s growth) and set up pumps and hose systems for water delivery. It’s grinding, difficult, unglamorous work, especially when you’re still learning, Ms. Kramer said.
“So being a new recruit, I hope that maybe some of those challenges become a little bit easier.”
Last summer was one of the most brutal wildfire seasons in Canadian history. Blazes across the country raged from early May well into the fall, scorching some 18.4 million hectares from B.C. to Nova Scotia, more than seven times the annual national average. Eight firefighters were killed – six in B.C. alone.
Faced with the prospect of another brutal season, Ms. Kramer said she’s as committed as ever.
“I’m just starting to mentally prepare myself,” she said. “I think with such a hard fire season under my belt, coming into this season with just a little bit more experience might ease myself into it a little bit. And hopefully I will learn lots more and be able to hold myself to a higher standard than I did last year.”
Lauren Mavrou was a canoeing guide last summer in the North, whose unprecedented wildfires motivated her to do more.
Lauren Mavrou was working deep in the bush guiding backcountry canoe trips last summer when the wildfires hit the Northwest Territories. She decided she wanted to help. “Almost all of [the canoe trips] were affected by wildfires,” she said. “I had friends who were affected and had to relocate – affected by the air quality. And that kind of pushed me to want to get into this kind of work and be a part of the efforts to help keep communities safe.”
Ms. Mavrou and Ms. Kramer are far from the only ones to raise their hands for a particularly tough job. Despite the challenges of last summer – or perhaps because of them – the fire service saw applications more than double over the winter.
Kyle Young, the BCWS’s manager of organizational development, who helps oversee the new recruit hiring process, said there were more than 2,000 applications this season, up from 836 last year, and roughly 250 rookies were invited to boot camp.
Mr. Young said the service hasn’t seen numbers like that since 2004, the winter following another devastating fire season, in which 30,000 people were forced to flee Kelowna, B.C., and hundreds of homes were lost.
The doubling of applications made getting a spot far more competitive than in recent years, but that suits new recruit Micah Roberts just fine. As a former basketball player, he said his fitness gives him a slight edge, just enough to make the gruelling fire training manageable.
“I’m excited to get to work,” Mr. Roberts said. “I’m excited to use what we’ve learned here.”
'I feel like I’m in good hands,' Micah Roberts says of the boot camp.
It won’t be long before the simulations are replaced with the real thing for Mr. Roberts and his colleagues. With little snowpack and deep drought conditions persistent across much of British Columbia, experts have warned for weeks about the possibility of another long, destructive fire season.
Mr. Roberts said the prospect of facing infernos for months on end is daunting, but he feels prepared.
“I mean, it’s intimidating, for sure. Especially being a first year,” he said. “But really, what this boot camp has shown me is how knowledgeable all the instructors are. And if the people I’m going out to work with are half as knowledgeable as them, I feel like I’m in good hands.”
“I’m looking forward to [our training] being put into real life on the fire line.”
Fires of the future: More from The Globe
The Decibel podcast
To stop B.C. from burning, wildfire services need an accurate idea of how much fuel is in the forests – but a recent study found that government data is often poor and inaccurate. The study’s lead author, Jen Baron, spoke with The Decibel about how that could be improved. Subscribe for more episodes.
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