The four worst fire seasons on record have all occurred in the past seven years. Morrow’s departure is looming just as the BC wildfire service is being tested like almost never before. We’d just had a kid, and I had plans to sort of start taking it easy a bit, but with Mike, there’s not very many people in our organization with his level of knowledge, so I just couldn’t pass it up.” “It was about three years ago when Mike asked if I wanted to spend his last two years with him, and I jumped at the chance,” Boghean said. Its extremely remote location also provided an excellent opportunity for training and practicing aerial ignitions, he said.įor Boghean, the experience was a world-class lesson in fighting the kind of big fires that Canada and the rest of the world are starting to see more of – thanks in part to the climate crisis. For the Donnie Creek fire, for example, steering it away from important sites such as highways often meant adding significantly to the fire’s size. “Firefighting is a chess game with Mother Nature,” said Morrow. Think of it as strategically denying resources to the enemy. Other times it means flying over the fire with a heli-torch – a giant barrel slung under a helicopter and dripping flaming napalm-like jelly directly on to the treetops.Ī firefighter from the BC wildfire service works to contain a planned ignition on the Tsah Creek wildfire outside Vanderhoof, British Columbia. Sometimes that means dragging flaming drip torches through the underbrush by hand. That often means using planned ignitions to set sections of forest alight on purpose, consuming fuels inside containment lines to prevent a fire from spreading uncontrollably. It’s his job to map fires, to learn their quirks and personalities, and figure out how to contain them. Morrow is a senior fire behaviour and ignitions specialist. This – the worst fire season in Canada’s history – will be his last, and Boghean has until November to learn as much as he can from his mentor. Photograph: Jesse Winter/The GuardianĪfter four decades in the BC wildfire service’s iconic fire-resistant red shirts and blue pants, Morrow is retiring. Wildfire ignitions specialist Mike Morrow (right) talks with ignitions trainee Morgan Boghean in the wildfire operations centre.
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