A team of firefighters led by incident commander Jonathan Large has been working tirelessly to contain the relentless fires in Wood Buffalo National Park since late May.
The wildfires, known as the Wood Buffalo complex, have proven to be extremely challenging and extraordinary. They have burned in excess of 500,000 hectares.
Large, who oversees the operations of four groups of personnel responsible for fighting the fires, said they have cycled through almost 1,500 people and 10 incident management teams over the last few months. Their days usually start early in the morning with a briefing and a planning meeting, and then they go out on the frontline to execute their tasks.
The personnel have to adapt to weather conditions, logistics, equipment and contracts. Large said that they also coordinate with stakeholders and work with the field unit to ensure smooth communication and cooperation.
The Wood Buffalo complex fires are still ongoing, and Large said they still have more than 100 personnel working on the blazes as of October. Many of the firefighters are looking forward to a Thanksgiving long weekend, according to Large. He expressed his gratitude and appreciation for the hard work and dedication of his team and all the firefighters involved.
During the peak of the summer, crews were on the ground working up to 16 hours per day. If things were changing, sometimes they were working through the night.
“It’s been quite an exhausting summer for all the personnel involved,” Large said, adding that the Wood Buffalo fires are still behaving aggressively.
“It’s burning deep into the ground, creating deep ash pits that take a tremendous amount of work for the crews to put out. It’s so dry now on the ground that the fire is burning deep,” he said.
The strain of the travails and the devastation of the wildfires can be emotional, Large acknowledged, particularly when communities are affected.
“I mean, that’s pretty painful, I would say it is” he said. “For a lot of individuals, it is quite a traumatic thing. But this summer we’re seeing fires overwhelm responders that the traditional tools that we have weren’t proving effective: the air tankers and the helicopters and the crews and the dozers, despite our best efforts and our best planning. It is hard for us because we want to do a good job and we want to help people.”
The firefighters lost one of their colleagues when Fort Liard’s Adam Yeadon died at work in July. Large knew a small family was left behind. He said every morning he takes a moment of silence and encourages everybody to stay safe.
“We take a lot on our hand, a lot on our shoulders and it can manifest itself in different ways once things are said and done,” he remarked.