A local fire fighter was demonstrating how to feel for heat underground and shoved his arm down a hole up to his shoulder. The Aussie fire fighters all yelled “you would never do that in Australia!” Operations For the second rotation I was deployed to the Van-Jam Fire Centre in Vanderhoof, an hour north of Prince George and was tasked as Operations Chief. There were ten fires in the surrounding area with three uncontained. The Big Bend Creek Fire 837 had escaped its original containment lines from the previous weeks and presented the biggest threat in the area. While comparatively small compared with others burning in BC, it was burning high value timber assets.
I had been paired up with an Incident Controller from BC, Bruce Doerkson, and our collaborative objective was to formulate prescribed back burning operations and containment strategies. We dedicated the first few days to creating strategic control lines or “guards”, utilising strike teams of heavy plant machinery under the guidance of the heavy plant manager Gordon Clarkeson. Gord’s experience managing the machinery meant that we could concentrate on broad strategies and he could provide feedback on what was realistically achievable within the timeframes. Operations in BC had significant differences to those in eastern Australia. Operating in a dry continent, Australian firefighting has adapted to
mobile carting of water. In BC there is a complex lake system and despite the dry vegetation, water is never far away. Australian crews utilise a variety of fire appliances to carry water to the fire ground, whereas the BC crews utilise the lake systems and run hose lays with buoy walls (portable dams) nicknamed “pumpkins”. With hose lays often running for several kilometres, the set up can take a number of days to prepare. Australian vegetation ignites more readily and burns at a faster rate of spread. Vegetation in BC burns more intensely, but fires are slower to reach the canopy and crown. In general terms, in BC there is more time to establish control lines and prepare hose lays. Implementing operational strategies and tactics can be
Below left: A lot of time was spent laying out kilometres of hose to siphon water from local rivers and lakes. Top right: Vegetation in BC burns more intensely, but fires are slower to reach the canopy.
14 BUSH FIREbulletin // FEATURES
at a different tempo due to the time it takes to establish a control line or “guard” and then establish kilometres of hose and relay pumps. At Van-Jam the Unit Crews were available only during a 12-hour daylight shift. With no crews available for night operations, strategic backburning had to be conducted during the warmest and windiest part of the day. At Fire 837, backburning was implemented with ground ignition crews, commencing at an anchor point and working for several kilometres along dirt roads and constructed guards. The ignition patterns were guided and directed from the observation aircraft. Backburning and prescribed burning is not as common in BC as it is in Australia