Important Takeaways:

• The indiscriminate devastation of Canada’s raging wildfires
• There have been more than 1,000 wildfires across Canada in the last week – a record number.
• The biggest fires may have been tamed, but there is still a significant threat as new seats of fire start up at various places in the tinder-dry forest.
• The helicopters flew and dropped water virtually from dawn till dusk and were back again the next day.
• This crisis has undoubtedly strengthened the bond between the fire crews and a grateful public, who gather at fire houses in Kelowna to cheer home the firemen and firewomen after another exhausting day in the forest.
• “There were times when our staff were surrounded on all sides by fire,” says the chief. “They would not say they were ‘trapped’ but there’s no question it’s been dangerous. We saw dramatic fire behavior, with winds ripping up trees by their roots and laying them down like toothpicks.”
• Most alarmingly, Chief Brolund wonders about how his relatively small department can cope with an ever-expanding fire season. Normally the team would be dealing with a relatively small number of blazes in July and August. Now, he says, they can be fighting wildfires from March to November.

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