How do we fight fires in the Northwest Territories?

Fighting a forest fire can be a very simple or a very complex operation.

Safety is always First.

A fire crew is equipped to deal with most small fires. In many cases, fire crews may be able to put out a lot of these fires with just their handtools; backpack pumps, shovels, pulaskis and axes. Firefighters may direct attack these fires by applying water to the fire edge with the backpack pumps or by digging up and burying the hot spots or by digging a trench around the fire. However, depending on fire weather conditions and the availability of water, a fire crew may deploy a portable pump unit (a Mark 3 pump and 2000 feet of 1.5" hose). These pump kits can provide up to 3500 gallons per hour and for the most part are sufficient to contain and mop-up most fires found on a smaller scale.

Helicopters that bring the crews out to fires may also carry water buckets. A crewmember may assist a helicopter pilot by hooking up the water bucket to the hook below the aircraft and the helicopter can then be used to drop water to contain the head of the fire. This gives the fire crew time to work on hooking up the water pump to nearby water source (lake, river, stream, swamp) and to lay out hose to the fireline. This action may be all that is needed to contain most fires.

Depending on observed and expected fire behavior, air tankers (CL215's, DC-4's, Birddog aircraft) may be dispatched to help contain and and hold a fire, several fires, or a larger fire, while other crews are being dispatched to these sites. This is when operations can become very complex. In extreme fire conditions, the number of fires may overwhelm the number of crews, helicopters and water bombers that are available to fight fires. Other regions may be tasked for resources to assist with these areas but to move resources takes time and very often within that time period, one or many of these fires may grow to a size beyond the capacity of the resources deployed to suppress it. To deal with this type of fire (incident) an Incident Command Team may be deployed.

An Incident Command Team may consist of one member or very many members depending on the size of the incident. The Incident Commander is in charge of the team and has four main Section Chiefs that handle specific tasks within the team. The Operations Section deals with the suppression of the fire, the Planning Section deals with daily and long-term plans for the incident, the Logistics Section deals with supplies, equipment, camps and food for the operation. and the Finance and Administration Section deals with the costing of the operation. Depending on the size and severity of the incident, the IC Team may become extremely large. There may be dozens of fire crews, heavy equipment (bulldozers, backhoes, feller-bunchers, skidders, trucks), and aircraft working on a large fire.

Several different firefighting techniques may be utilized during a very complex operations, including burning out from cat lines using hand torches and backfiring with heli-torches slung below helicopters. There are other combinations of firefighting methods that may require specialized equipment and specialized personnel trained and experienced to deploy these techniques and equipment.

Safety is always First!