B.C. Is Burning

 Sometimes when I sit down and begin, I know immediately what I am going to put down is going to raise hackles. But, see, I can't keep quiet when something rubs me wrong, so just going to have to go with the flow, and likely pi$$ some folks off. 
Yes, my title, B.C. is burning. It is!! Forest fires all over the province, causing folks to lose their possessions, their homes, their way of life. Pushing stress and anxiety to the limits. I speak from some experience, as a few years back I , also had to pack up what was important to me, and flee my home. 
My heart goes out to all of those who have suffered through this. Unlike myself, many of these folks have indeed learned their homes have been destroyed. Without doubt, livestock has been lost, worlds turned totally upside down. 
I understand, forest fires are a fact of nature. As one who loves a good thunder storm, I know each time I sit and enjoy the flash of lightening, there is a chance it will spark a blaze that will cause damage. Such is the force of Mother Nature, and..sometimes the result of human carelessness. This happens without our control, this is a fact of life in the forest. Natural fires cause damage, and then Nature rebuilds, beginning with the cycle that has continued through time.
 However!!! As one who has grown up in this province, through many decades, and seen and heard about many fires, I find myself with more than a few questions on the Forestry practices in modern day fire fighting. 
Months ago, I was driving back from Prince George, and as I went through Fraser Lake, I could see smoke on the horizon. I stopped at a pull out along the way, and could see quite clearly where this fire was. It wasn't huge, but clearly it had potential for disaster. Now this is when the Forest Practices come into question. This is when one checks out the fire on-line (yes everything is on-line now) and reads "this fire is being monitored". O.K. no structures at risk, we will fly over it daily and use our beady little university trained eyes to decide if we are going to attempt to put it out. Hey, that is my personal take on things. Our fault for living in an area of the province that is sparsely populated. Not a whole whack of fancy vacation homes scattered about the back roads, here. Just farms, and the odd family who clearly enjoys space. Just because the eyes in the sky don't see any structures being compromised, does not mean the fire should not be put out! So, all this monitoring, clearly was a mistake. Now suddenly we have more than one community at risk, because Mother Nature pulled a few surprises, and it took off..like...Wildfire! Resources are stretched to the max, because there are so many other fires burning.
I am sorry....But I believe this monitoring business is sh*t!Winds in mountain valleys have minds of their own. They can change in an instant, and that is what happens between the time those eyes in the sky land, and spend their off time, before checking stuff out again. Mother nature does not do a 9-5 job, she is on the job 24-7. So unless these book trained monitors can hang around day and night flying back and forth, they are useless!! One too many times we have seen this happen in our province, and one too many times with disastrous results. Forest fires must be watched all the time, because they change so quickly. Did the books not teach this? With all the new doo dads and internet, and weather reports, and yes, university training..our Forest Fire suppression is worse than it was 20 years ago. Too many people who do not respect Mother Nature, and assume everything goes by the book! 
Have you ever seen Foresty fire crews at work? I did when I went through this blasted evacuation crap! I saw a lovely group brought in from New Zealand or Australia. I know... on the news we think yippee..help from abroad. This help is not free, by any means. This help costs far more than our own. This help would sit in the local restaurant because the road to where their equipment was left (oh, and at one time, burned up) was too muddy to travel. Oh, and also their camp was set up in a totally different community, 45 minutes from our town. This meant every morning at starting time..they would all pile in the vehicles and drive out to the fire area, and every afternoon, they would pile in and drive back to the other community. I do not have access to the time sheets, but I imagine the travel time is either extra, or...taken off the actual time worked.I also expect there was a monitor left out in the area. But..while these folks were going back to the camp, local loggers were busy building fire guards, and....they were not stopping when the bell rang. 
Forest fire fighting has like so many other things, become big business. Our government has no issue dishing out big contracts, for those in business. Rules and regulations, well, yes, I cannot dispute the serious dangers involved in this work. But, I remember a time when locals could volunteer to try and save their community. Now, well, like everything else, you need a ticket for this, a ticket for that, and few are qualified. I remember when folks would simply be driving through an area with a fire, and they would be stopped and conscripted to fight it. I remember when someone with a pair of binoculars would spot a fire and almost instantly someone was fighting it. I remember as a kid a fire breaking out on the mountain above town, and within hours along came a plane, flew over a few times dousing the flames, and it was out. No one monitored it! Back in those days, we had locals who knew the area, who knew the winds, and would use their expert knowledge to do what was needed. Now we have "experts" who have read all sorts of books, but live in the lower mainland, or maybe the Okanagen, or even Ontario! These folks show up with their minds wrapped around some concept that worked in the last fire in Timbuktu, and figure we can just repeat the game plan here. 
This time B.C. is burning quickly. We have found ourselves with monitored fires suddenly becoming aggressive overnight. Hellooooo!! That is what bloody well happens! We have locals asking if fire guards should be built, and the experts stating they are studying this to see where would be best...Talk to the locals!! Talk to the loggers, talk to the guides, talk to those who know their land, and their winds. Leave the bloody books and computers at home. Each and every forest fire in British Columbia is a dangerous one. It does not matter if they are miles from structures, they move quickly when they want, and then it is too late. 
Statistics will prove that monitored fires often go rogue, and wind is usually the catalyst. Our fire fighting resource is often pushed to the max in the Okanagen. This area takes up a huge part each and every year, because of population. Structures abound in these parts, and fires occur continually. In MPO our provincial Fire protection is based solely in this area..the rest of the province must deal with whatever is left. Government weighs the population numbers, and look, Telegraph Creek, Fraser Lake, Burns Lake, hummm..low numbers, low media coverage, we will give them what we can, but we must concentrate on the important areas. Go ahead..call me on this...
Maybe it is time for our less populated, heavily forested areas to have their own Fire Protection services, provincially funded, of course. Let the Okanagen have theirs, but let us have a resource in place that can stand up when needed, and concentrate on our area. Don't leave our area to sit and accept monitoring, instead of attack. You only monitor when you assume something is going to stop, you don't monitor until something has grown too large to handle. Let those who know their land, save their land. Instead we have to accept someone who does not have a stake in anything, telling us what the proper procedures are, and then, when they f*ck up (because they have!) they simply walk away after the fact, with nothing lost. 
When humans are confronted with the possibility of losing all they have acquired, they will fight to save what they can. I am well aware that personal property is not worth lives..however there is a line, and our government has removed the ability to fight to that line. They clearly believe they know better. I think we now see they don't. 
As a blurb, near the end..let me say, never do I dispute the fact fighting forest fires is a dangerous profession. I admire those who spend their lives keeping fit, and working in extreme conditions. Thank you, so much for what you do!! That said...it is past time to change the policies of Forestry when it comes to fighting fires..because this just is not working!!
MPO