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Crews prep for wildfire season

Pemberton Fire Zone crews take to helicopters as the fire hazard rating creeps up
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Practicing perfect An instructor teaches a wildfire fighter how to exit a hovering helicopter. Photo BY cathryn Atkinson

The firefighting crews of the Pemberton Fire Zone, which includes Whistler, are gearing up for a busy season, training, checking equipment, reconnecting with old comrades and saying hello to new ones.

They know the fires won't be waiting for an invitation to ignite in the Sea to Sky region's forests and wilderness areas.

And as a case in point, Toni Large, a forest protection technician with the Pemberton Fire Zone — the woman charged with ensuring I don't walk into a helicopter tail rotor while watching training exercises — makes a hasty, apologetic retreat in the middle of our interview.

She returns after 20 minutes, saying she had to find out more about a new fire in the Hope Fire Zone, over the mountains but not far away as the fire teams fly. It's relatively quiet for the moment and the training can continue.

We're up the road from Pemberton airport, at the forestry service's firebase, watching 40 men and four women practice exiting hovering helicopters in a nice, flat field.

The reality in the coming days will be somewhat different, with these people being called on to make up "Initial Attack" teams who jump into all sorts of terrain, including mountain slopes and rocky terrain, to battle wildfires.

A three-person Initial Attack crew ensures the area is clear of debris in case other firefighters are dropped in behind them. The whole concept is to "hit hard, hit fast" before a fire gains in size. They will be dropped into an area to assess the fire and then fight it themselves or send for support.

In order to perform a hover exit from a helicopter, crews must be certified as it is considered a high-risk activity.

In Friday's exercise (May 11), three helicopters are in use — a pilot and instructor sit up front, and two trainees are in the back. The rest of us watch, with other trainees waiting their turn. The air is thick with fluffy dandelion seeds stirred up by the rotor blades.

As the chopper rises about five metres off the ground, the trainees slide one-by-one through the landing skids beneath the aircraft, ending up suspended in midair below the fuselage of the helicopter and using the bottom of the chopper's cabin doorframe to hold on tight. They must exit on the opposite side to the pilot in order to ensure the helicopter stays balanced.

The pilot brings the helicopter closer to the grass so it is a short drop for each firefighter. In a few cases, the firefighter's feet actually touch the ground as the hands still hold on, with the illusory effect of making it seem like the firefighter is actually holding up the helicopter.

To call the whole operation impressive — the piloting, the training, and the execution — is an understatement.

Firefighters have travelled all the way from the Sunshine Coast to take part. Classroom seminars were taught in the morning, and everyone planning to do this sort of work must retrain at the start of each season, regardless of how many years experience a firefighter has.

During a busy summer, Large tells me, up to 44 helicopters can be parked in the smallish field now in use, from smaller Bells to the massive Sikorskys. The last time this happened was during the very hot, very busy summer of 2009.

This is Large's 15th year on the job.

"What I love about my job, it sounds corny, but I actually love doing something for the public, for my province," she says.

"We do work hard, and I like that as well, and there is the camaraderie. You might see someone in the uniform and not know them, but they're family."

Dan Waugh works in snowboard shops in Whistler during the winter, but for the last five years he has been a unit crewmember in Pemberton, ready to be called in at any time.

He likes the "on-the-fly" problem-solving aspect of fighting wildfires.

"You see a lot of B.C. from a different perspective," he says. "You're out there with a purpose, you provide a benefit to people."

And then there are the bragging rights because "everyone is interested in what you do."

"But the paradox of being a firefighter is that you want to get paid for doing your job, but that means that somewhere there has to be a fire," he says.

Last year, during a cooler summer, the Pemberton Fire Zone area had 11 wildfires, all started by human activity. In hotter years, like 2009, there tends to be a spike in lightning-initiated fires. That year, there were 115 in total in the Pemberton Fire Zone, 102 started by lightning and 13 by humans. The yearly average for human-initiated fires in the zone is 10 between 2002 and 2011.

Large launches into a wish list for the public this year. "Be sure you mention prevention. Tell people to make sure their campfires are out and bare-hand cold to the touch, and not to light fires when it is too windy. And to report fires," she says.

"It is 100 per cent frustrating. Lightning fires are natural, eco-systems are based on them. But human fires? It's all preventable. So often it is weekend warriors in a rush to get home, and they don't check their fires in the morning when they leave. Those fires really bother me."

The first large forest fire in the region this season broke out near Lillooet on Saturday afternoon (May 12), and at least some members of the Salish Unit Crew who had taken part in Friday's training were part of a 10-person team deployed to the Kamloops Fire Centre to help out.

Kayla Pepper of the Kamloops Fire Centre said the blaze had burned 140 hectares near Pavilion Lake, 25 kilometres north of Lillooet. Around 60 homes were placed on evacuation alert; the fire was reported to be 95 per cent contained as of Tuesday afternoon (May 15).

"It definitely could have been worse, but these guys, they're all trained up," Pepper says.

"The terrain (at Marble Canyon near Pavilion Lake) is very steep and poses challenges for them. It definitely takes considerable training and talent to do what they do."

As of Tuesday, May 15, there have been 21 forest fires over 10 hectares burning in British Columbia this season, with 12 in various stages of burning or being mopped up.

Whistler's fire risk level is currently moderate, so take care. For up to date information on emergencies or alerts regarding forest fires, consult the Advisories section on the homepage at whistler.ca.

To report a wildfire call toll-free 1-800-663-5555 or *5555 on most cellular networks.