Wildfire Response – it’s our job

11 March 2024

Intro

Great to see so much work being done on the Prevention/Mitigation, Preparedness and Recovery but don’t forget Response. Even if we received all the money we asked for, did all the work that needed to be done and somehow eliminated climate change large, damaging wildfires are still going to occur for many years to come.

If you live, work, or play in rural BC for any length of time you are going to have an interaction with a wildfire. These interactions will range from reporting a distant smoke to making high consequence decisions with limited information in chaotic, rapidly evolving circumstances. Even if you decide the best course of action is to leave you need to be trained to make as good a decision as possible on which way to go and where you will be safe. If you decide to respond directly you need to be trained, properly equipped and physically capable of doing the work.

In recent years BC Wildfire has been overwhelmed and were often unable to provide the help we would like. Local governments have struggled to give accurate evacuation advice and direction. These agencies are working on improving but in the meantime we all need to pick up our response game to reflect current conditions to stay safe and help protect our communities, livelihoods, families, friends and neighbors from catastrophic wildfires.

Distant Smoke – report and follow instructions. Warn anyone in peril.

High Consequence rapid decisions required – limited time and information.

I have been in several situations where people were unsure of how to, or refused to, take action on a fire in their vicinity. In two of these cases the fires grew significantly and caused considerable damage. Appropriate and prompt action would have eliminated or reduced the losses and streamlined the response.

Conversely I have had to try and keep people back from directly attacking a fire that was obviously beyond their capability of dealing with safely and successfully.

Why We May Hesitate to Take Action

Wildfire response used to be everyone’s job. There was a forest ranger in every town with a summer suppression crew. Bush crews and locals would swarm any fire they saw. Young workers seemed to gain knowledge through osmosis from their elder family members and work mates. The Rangers would call on Fire Wardens and more industry workers when needed. When all else failed they would flush people out of the local bar and conscript them for duty. Your choice was report for duty or go to jail for a similar length of time.

Things have changed, some for the better, but we need to re-incorporate a few of the old methods. Many people in our modern society do not feel it is their responsibility to respond to emergencies. They may not realize that in rural and remote locations they are likely to be on their own for considerable periods of time or how valuable they may be in keeping a wildfire small and manageable, or at least reducing losses.

There are a lot of people living, working and playing in rural BC with little or no wildfire experience and inadequate training. They may have misconceptions about wildfires. Many of us who provide training have added to this problem by showing pictures of towering columns of smoke and raging infernos during our presentations giving the impression that every wildfire is a potential life threatening conflagration. Not every wildfire behaves this way and depending on fuel, weather and topography, it may remain safely manageable for a considerable period of time.

Due to the consolidation of the forest industry we have trended to specialized activities. Silviculture surveys, lay out, timber cruising, waste and residue, tree planting and research contract crews tend to be working in areas away from where they reside and are often paid by production. They may not feel local ties or responsibilities or may have financial concerns about missing a work day. This lack of familiarity with the area may lead to uncertainty about what to do when they see smoke. They may feel it is someone else’s job, assume someone is aware of it and is responding or they might just want to complete what they are paid to do. I have been disappointed a few times in recent years when crews like this have driven by an active fire and not offered any assistance. I know of two cases where out of town crews are under investigation for not responding to, or reporting, a fire.

Worker doing Initial Attack

Loggers, First Nations peoples, ranchers and rural residents are the admirable exceptions to this trend. They usually have very strong local connections and loyalties. I often have to try and hold these folks back from charging into harms way to try and subdue a raging beast. For this group we need to improve their knowledge and skills to allow them to respond more safely and effectively.

Even if people aren’t comfortable or able to take action on a wildfire directly there are a lot of things they can do that will help the response.

An Excellent Example

The summer of 2022 refused to die. We had extreme fire danger until the snow finally came in late Oct.

A lowbed operator was driving down a remote highway just before midnight in late September when he noticed a distant glow in the dark. He had a feeling it was close to a location where he had dropped some logging equipment the previous week but it was hard to tell in the dark. He reported the fire and was told it had already been reported and crews were going to action it at daylight.

He realized there was some possible confusion about the location and values threatened. He tried to contact someone on the road channel but no crews were on site. He recognized that there was elevated late night fire activity due to an inversion so he turned around and drove up the road to where he had delivered the machines. He discovered a rapidly spreading fire approaching several million dollars in equipment and threatening not just timber assets but the contractor’s livelihood. He contacted the fire reporting number again to clarify the situation then moved the equipment to a safe location until crews arrived at 0300.

What an admirable attitude this man demonstrated and it is one we should all emulate. He could very easily have said “not my job” and moved on.

Legal, Contractual, Insurance and Moral Obligations

The public is responsible to try and control any fire they cause and to report any fire they see. All workers in any industry that work in the wildlands have detailed legislated obligations to take action on any wildfire on, or near, their worksite. Most service agreements detail response obligations that mirror the legislations as do most commercial insurance policies.

Because workers have a legal obligation to respond Worksafe Regulations require that they must be adequately trained and equipped. I suggest that members of the public that live or play in rural BC also get the required training and equip themselves.

Besides the legal and contractual obligations, as stewards provided the privilege of residing, recreating and/or making a living on the land I suggest we have a moral obligation to respond as well.

Just like stopping to help at a car crash or medical incident we can volunteer our services anytime we want. We need to be aware that we may be responsible for any action we take so need to be operating in a reasonable manner. When organized help arrives we can offer our assistance and follow instructions as directed. As discussed in previous posts the time to establish a relationship with BCWS crews is in the off season so they know you and your capabilities once the smoke is in the air.

There is no guarantee but in recent years BC Wildfire Service has been very fair about re-imbursing people who have volunteered to help for any length of time or incurred significant expenses in doing so. I haven’t heard of anyone being held accountable for any damages incurred while acting in good faith within the scope of their training or abilities.

Make Sure Your Training Meets Your Needs

As described in previous posts the BC Wildfire S100 and 185 are not adequate to train most of us for dealing with the situations we are likely to encounter in rural areas. It doesn’t cover enough safety information or adequately prepare the participant to assess a fire, set objectives and make an appropriate plan. I am actually not sure who the Target Audience is for the S100 and the Learning Objectives are somewhat vague especially for the practical day. BC Wildfire doesn’t use this training material internally for their crews. We need to revise our response training to meet our specific requirements and help keep people safe and effective until organized help arrives.

Improve Wildfire Response Training

MacLeod Forest Services S100 for Industry Wildfire Response Guidelines

To be clear, I am not saying we should all grab our pulaskis and p-cans and run towards every wildfire but we need to know how to assess each situation and make an appropriate plan. In recent years I have added information to the existing training and have presented it to various groups from the forest, agriculture, construction and recreation industries as well as first nations and other rural communities. The phone is ringing for more so it must have been well received.

I have expanded the Safety section of the training to include 12 Wildfire Hazards Id and Risk Analysis and Mitigation. This includes using the latest US Forest Service Safe Zone information and more detailed Entrapment Avoidance and Burn-over Survival content. I have also expanded the Crew Supervision and Line Location and Construction Sections.

In my training we do several wildfire assessment and decision making exercises to help people determine appropriate action based on current and expected fire behavior, values at risk and available resources. In our fire behavior section we do detailed assessments of current fire behavior (flame length, rate of spread, spotting, smoke color/density/ volume) and use the BCWS app and weather forecast to predict potential fire behavior. I stress that we really only have three choices on any new fire: Extinguish, Contain or Withdraw/Protect Values/Regroup. I also stress there is no right or wrong answer as plans are going to vary as more information becomes available or conditions change. Everyone identifies applicable WATCHOUT situations, establishes LACES and conducts a Crew Briefing for each scenario.

There are numerous tasks that we can undertake if the fire exceeds our capability or we are unable to respond directly. Communicating updates to approaching crews, relaying information from sites with cell phone coverage, alerting people in the area, flagging the roads in to the incident, establishing a staging area, identifying potential water sources, patrolling for spot fires or scouting alternate potential control line locations all can be conducted safe distances from the fire and will speed the response.