Montreal:
Facing grueling conditions worthy of a Dantean hell, against high walls of blistering flames, thousands of firefighters mobilized throughout the Canadian summer. They came out exhausted and worried about the future.
Four of them described to AFP their experiences as this record-breaking bushfire season comes to an end.
– ‘Crazy’ summer –
Isabelle Boucher, 26, spent the entire “crazy” summer in the Canadian wilderness, working 12 hours a day.
“I didn’t see anything, I didn’t do anything. I just worked,” the firefighter said.
The new recruit was just 1.5 meters tall and was deployed to fight the intense fires blazing across Quebec.
Although Boucher wasn’t concerned about her physical health, she admitted to being mentally exhausted.
She’s not alone: This year’s wildfire season has weighed heavily on the morale of all firefighters, she said.
“The future is scary,” she added, longing for a break.
– ‘Big tinderbox’ –
At 21 years old, Alfred James (AJ) Lawrance is already somewhat of a seasoned firefighter. He, too, admitted to feeling exhausted, “desperate for a break after working non-stop all summer.”
He was deployed to the Northwest Territories, mainly to fight the fires that were advancing towards Yellowknife in the far north, a city that had to be evacuated in August.
“The lack of rain this summer made things extremely difficult and transformed all the vegetation into a huge tinderbox,” he said.
As an avid outdoorsman, he said he sometimes felt helpless. “It’s hard to see friends’ homes and cabins destroyed and not being able to do anything because the fire is too extreme.”
As a forestry student, he worries about the future: “As summers get warmer and rain decreases, fires come closer to communities and cities. It’s a huge threat.”
– A bigger, badder new ‘normal’ –
Firefighter Kara Galbraith, 29, said her job was a lot like an organized sport, with a big emphasis on teamwork, physical fitness and a common goal.
She is a former rugby player from British Columbia, a western province hit hard by fires, and a nearly ten-year veteran of the local wildland fire department.
Galbraith started firefighting to pay for his education, but fell in love with the job and stuck with it. She spent most of the summer on the front lines leading a team of eighteen firefighters.
She said her college background in geomatics — collecting and interpreting data about the Earth’s surface — “helps me map fires and give crews situational awareness.”
After years of battling fires, Galbraith said the increasing intensity and number of wildfires are becoming the new normal.
Fire season starts earlier and lasts longer each year, she said, starting as soon as the snow melts and extending into October.
“That’s a very long fire season,” Galbraith said, adding that it exhausts firefighters, whose numbers are recognized as being too small to meet needs.
– ‘Never again’ –
Luc Boutin, 60 years old, is one of Canada’s oldest volunteer firefighters, with almost 30 years of experience. He told AFP he had never seen it this bad, adding: “We are really scared.”
During the day he works at a pulp mill in Lebel-sur-Quevillon, Quebec. He is new to bushfires and has undergone training in dealing with house fires.
In his small town, located in the heart of the boreal forest, he said, “the fire came very close to the pulp mill.”
“It was a wall of flames. I was scared.”
“I hope I never experience that again,” Boutin added, explaining that “there were mornings where you couldn’t see three feet in front of you because the smoke was so thick.”
Although he was wary of a repeat next summer, he fondly remembered the incredible solidarity that developed among the firefighters with whom he shared the station for three weeks.
And, Boutin added, “the recognition of our hard work by the people warmed the heart.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)