It was as though they were performing a series of dance moves鈥攅ach foot moving slightly behind or beside the other deliberately鈥攈owever, in this case, missing a step didn鈥檛 mean missing a beat, it meant falling out of a helicopter into a wildfire.
Okay, not a real fire. But the helicopter was real enough as members from practiced their hover-exit maneuvers at the Hope airport Tuesday afternoon.
Unlike structure fires, or fires within populated areas, forest fires don鈥檛 always have roads that can deliver firefighters to an active burn, so a helicopter is used to literally drop them where they need to be.
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鈥淚f the terrain is very difficult and we can鈥檛 find a flat spot to actually land the helicopter 鈥� we use the hover-exit technique to get a crew on the ground to a fire,鈥� explained Brian Davis, crew leader for the Initial Attack team.
First responders of a sort, Davis says it鈥檚 the Initial Attack team who鈥檚 first contacted to report on the conditions of the fire and report back to the fire centre on whether they can contain it themselves or will need more assistance. So it鈥檚 important they鈥檙e delivered to fire sites quickly and safely.
The annual training is mandatory because it keeps the firefighters up-to-date and practicing because, as it鈥檚 used as a last resort, the technique isn鈥檛 used every year. However, in his seventh season with B.C. Wildfire Services, Davis says the heli-exit experience can be a nerve-wracking one for beginners.
鈥淎 lot of times these guys haven鈥檛 even flown in a helicopter and they鈥檙e being asked to now step out of one that鈥檚 hovering.鈥�
Yet it鈥檚 not only the newbies who feel nervous as they step out of a hovering helicopter. 鈥淭here鈥檚 still a rush for sure鈥攖hat鈥檚 why I love the job. That initial rush you get when you鈥檙e flying out to the fire trying to figure out what to do.鈥�
And with record low precipitation levels in March, and reports of wildfires already coming in, the training couldn鈥檛 come at a better time.
But 鈥渋t鈥檚 impossible to really predict how many fires we鈥檙e going to get鈥擨 really have no idea,鈥� continued Davis, who spends his winters living in the Fraser Valley and summers fighting fires across the province. 鈥淵ou just have to take them as they come.鈥�
As of April 1, there were are 28 wildfires larger than 0.009 hectares burning in various locations around the province. In 2017, B.C. experienced its worst wildfire season on record鈥攚ith 2018 being the second worst鈥攏early $570 million was spent trying to suppress fires that burned across 1.2 million hectares of land, and displaced 65,000 people.
Sarah.Gawdin@HopeStandard.com
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