[Company Logo Image] Lamb Creek Fire

The Thought...

Considering the overall situation that our neighbours in BC were enduring, with so many dangerous large fires impinging on populated areas, we decided that we should offer our help! After watching the TV footage of the homes in Kelowna being consumed by the Okanogan Park Fire, we called the Kelowna Fire Department and offered our help. They were under a barrage of offers of help and suggested that we contact the BC Provincial Emergency Program partners and add our equipment to the list of available resources. Sure enough on Monday morning the office of the Alberta Fire Chiefs Association called encouraging us to forward a list of available resources. Greg (our Chief) quickly did so, and the waiting began....

The Call...

As the next few days passed and soon turned into weeks, we began to think of other things. Life for us was pretty much back to normal until THE CALL... Thursday morning, September 4th, 2003 the BC Office of the Fire Commissioner called Greg Van Tighem and asked for our equipment and manpower. They said be prepared to stay a week, and they wanted us ASAP. Greg promised we would be on the way in the early after noon, and he got on the phone and started calling the list of Volunteers. In no time at all he had his group, Deputy Chief Ron Stanko, Captain Don Smith, Firefighter Darren Thom and Firefighter Fergus Middleton.

The Gear...

We had committed our second line truck, Pump 4, a 1978 International with a 500 gallon tank and 850GPM pump. During the summer months we keep it setup for Wildland Urban Interface fires, and we had just used it at Pocohantas to protect some structures during our own Syncline Ridge Wildfire. We added extra hoses and Wajax pump kits, as well special sprinkler kits that were graciously loaned to us by Parks Canada. We quickly found that we had more equipment than we could carry so we enlisted the brand new Chief's truck as well. After a quick meeting, and even quicker pack job, we said our rushed goodbyes to families and were on the road to Golden, BC as promised. (Of course the Mayor dropped in to wish us a safe trip!)

Click on photos to enlarge

The Trip...

The trip to our first staging area in Golden, BC was pretty uneventful. Everything went well, albeit slow!. We arrived in Golden at 18:00 hrs, and met with a group of the local firefighters at their Firehall. They signed us in and informed us that we were going to stay in Golden and provide first response for structural firefighting for their area. The reasoning for this was due to a shifting of equipment and manpower closer to Cranbrook and the Lamb Creek Fire, some of the smaller towns were left depleted of manpower and equipment. We did express some concern about our lack of familiarity with the area, but more so we were worried about the fact that BC uses different threads on all their Hydrants and we were NOT compatible. A couple of calls were made and it was quickly decided that we would continue on to Cranbrook, in place of a crew that was expected from Nicholson. We picked up a guide from Golden who was heading down as well and we were off again! At long last we pulled into Hall #2 in Cranbrook at 12:00PM, tired and excited. There was some small confusion about where we were going to stay, since they were expecting a different crew, but we settled in at 2:00 am with our wake up call set at 6:00 am so we could report back and start our 12hr shift!

The Deal...

In the morning we attended our first daily briefing, and found out we were posted to Hidden Valley, a subdivision on the south end of Cranbrook, approximately 6kms from the main fire. We had been assigned unit numbers and added the "Custom Paint " to our trucks. After some organizing we headed out to our station for familiarization. Our Staging area was a gravel parking area just north of Hidden Valley. We spent most of the day checking out our area and all it's back roads.

It was a fairly uneventful day until late in the afternoon, around 7pm, when we noticed a lot of activity overhead!It seemed like someone was trying to get out attention! We quickly found out that the helicopters were trying to call us, but at that time we had no way to communicate with them! When the buckets started flying by we knew that something was up! Finally we got a message relayed to us, and a truck pulled into our staging area with some Ministry of Forestry members. They quickly instructed us to follow them and we were off to chase a spotfire! We were a little hesitant at first, since the road was a little sketchy for a municipal pumper truck but with our Command vehicle out front scouting, Ron "assured" us it was okay to follow! It turned out okay, as we made it into the area and along with Calgary Fire Department and the Helicopters, we helped knock down a hold over fire that was about the size of half a football field. Using water cans, polaski axes, shovels and rakes, we quickly mopped up what the bucket missed. We were relieved by a Forestry Crew with a "Bush Buggy" who offered to stay and do the final clean up. Feeling a little pumped about actually doing some hands on work, we happily headed back in for the day!

The Routine...

After the first day, we became more acquainted with the routine. In the morning was our 8am Briefing, explaining what was up for the day, and what happened that night. There were usually 150-200 firefighters attending these meetings. Outside 40-50 fire apparatus of varying types were ready to go.

There were equipment trailers full of supplies, and coolers filled with drinks and ice for us to take if we needed. On the way through town many folks would wave to us and there were many signs everywhere thanking us for our help! Once at our staging area we began long days of waiting and watching. The days were long !

More to Come!

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