All language subtitles for Wildfire.2025.S01E05.1080p.WEB.h264-BAE_track3_[eng]

[♪♪♪]

[♪♪♪]

[Mike] I'm always
thinking about fire.

It's an obsession, really.

I'm an ignition specialist.

My main role
is to work with communities

to help provide protection
from wildfire.

As firefighters,

we're usually
behind the eight-ball.

We're called because
there already is a fire.

Mother Nature
has the jump on us...

but, you know,

we can use Mother Nature's
tool of fire

for good instead of bad.

We can use fire,
not just fight fire.

I'm always thinking about
"Why is the fire doing this?"

Looking at the indices.

Trying to solve that riddle

of, "What is the driving force

that is making
this fire happen?"

That if we can find
that weak link

and break that,

we can help control this fire.

As a fire behaviour specialist,

there is the joke
that goes around

that I show up
and talk to the fire,

and tell it to behave itself.

Sometimes it doesn't listen.

[♪♪♪]

[Joe] One of the things

that my grandmother told me

was water is the cleanser
of the human body,

and fire is the cleanser
of Mother Earth.

As the songs and stories go,

the fire made sure
that all was healthy

and we're always provided for
by the land.

Cultural burning
is the Indigenous use of fire.

It's a tool
to steward the land.

It was done
over thousands of years

by Indigenous people,

and the fire was used

to take care of the resources
that we were interested in,

medicine, food plants,

the wetlands,

huckleberry patches, meadows,

all those areas.

[Tony] The record shows

that under Indigenous
fire stewardship practices,

those systems of management

and stewarding the land

broke up the landscape

and created
this patchwork on the landscape

which really allowed fires
to become quite more contained.

For as long
as there's been photosynthesis

on the planet,

there's been fire,

and a lot of ecosystems,

certainly in BC,
but across the planet,

are adapted to fire.

They require it, actually.

There's species of plant,
for example,

that only produce seeds
after a fire event,

so the concept of good fire
really just recognizes

that fire has always been
a part of ecosystems,

will always be
a part of ecosystems,

and we can use fire to reduce
the risk of unwanted fire.

We'll just go, like,
maybe one or two feet

from the inside here,

and then we'll just layer it...
down that way.

Okay.

[Joe] By using fire
to cleanse Mother Earth,

you get rid of the fuel.

If you don't have any fuel,
then you don't have any fire.

Right? So if you can
use fire in that way,

then you'll make
your community safer

in the long run.

Looking, you know,
into the future,

you won't have
to bother with this

for another four years,

so, you know, for four years,

you just kinda have
a little peace of mind

for the families that are here

that a fire...

you know,
if it starts right here,

we'll have a chance
to put it out,

'cause there won't be
so much fuel.

The firekeeper

is a person that's comfortable
using the fire,

being able
to apply fire to the land.

You can't just let the fire
take off and run, now.

You have to be able
to control it

and actually stop it.

Tyler?

Don't make it too big, hey?

Springtime and fall-time
is usually the best time

to do a cultural burn,

fall-time for deciduous.

We get rid of
that kind of stuff, and...

all the leaves that fell

in the last
three or four years,

and then, you get a...

a growth of grass coming back
with, uh, mushrooms

and all kinds of
different medicine

that's just waiting for fire,

and it's not
killing the berry bushes,

it's actually
just improving them.

[Tony]
Most of the burns we do now

are in partnership
with First Nations.

Most of them are informed
by First Nations knowledge,

or certainly what
First Nations objectives are,

what they actually want to see
on their territories

in terms of bringing good fire
back to their territories.

[Mike] Today's objectives?

First priority

is ecosystem restoration,

reducing fuel loading
on the site,

and as well, creating a, uh...

a fuel break, potentially,
for the community of Wasa,

as well as Ta Ta Creek,
which is north of us.

Small communities,
but still, you know,

very in need
of community protection.

You're gonna be starting
at the north end,

working your way south,

so two firing teams,

one going down the west,
one going down the east.

Uh, east side
will be numerical,

west side'll be alphabetical.

Any idea why
we set it up that way?

[crew member] Less confusion?

No confusion!

[laughter]

If you're being told
to go from one to two,

there's no way you can hear
that on the radio

saying, "Go from A to B."

It just makes it
totally cleaner.

Okay.

Once it's done, you guys
can get out to the perimeter,

and I'll start
filling in the middle.

[member]
Yeah, sounds great.

[Mike] A lot of the fir,
larch, and yellow pine

are fire-resistant.

They have very thick bark

that protects them
from the heat,

and it does not
damage the timber.

It's just
a nice, clean undergrowth.

It just cleans that out nicely.

First Nations have a saying

that when you see
the purple fuzzy flowers,

that it's time to burn.

Once this flower is fully open
and the petals drop,

then that's a no-go after that.

So, just a neat little indicator

that we're in the right place
at the right time,

and doing the right thing.

We have many different
ignition devices

in our arsenal.

The plastic sphere dispenser,

also known
as the Red Dragon,

is a device that shoots out
plastic spheres

which are basically
the size of a ping-pong ball

used for ignition.

[sizzling]

It's an exothermic reaction

where the potassium
permanganate,

when it meets glycol,
produces heat,

and will burn
at up to 2,000 degrees.

The machine spits the ball out,

it drops from the helicopter
onto the ground,

20 to 30 seconds later,

it will burst into flame

and burn
for approximately two minutes.

It is fun to do,

you know, 'cause you're flying
in the back of the helicopter,

and you have the door off,
you're seat-belted in,

you've got the greatest seat
in the house

for when the fire
actually gets going.

The PSD is better

for when you really
have to be gentle.

For example,
if you're in the forest,

and it's really hot
and dry conditions,

we can use the PSD

and hopefully keep the fire
on the ground level.

So, you can see here,

just from
the low-intensity fire

that's just come through,

all it's done
is burnt off the dead grass.

Real low impact.

You know, even this
isn't being killed.

[engine humming]

So, you can see
from the burn here yesterday,

very low severity.

You know, it's not your typical
image of a forest fire,

where everything's black
from top to bottom

as far as the eye can see.

Three weeks to a month,

the burn we did here

will be green
like you wouldn't believe.

We saw elk from the air,

we saw turkeys,

we saw white-tailed deer
running around,

so we know they live here.

It's gonna be a much better
place for them to live

once it greens back up.

It basically
resets the ecosystem

to where it always
likes to start from...

...and the regrowth
is just amazing.

Within a few days,

you can see the grass
is starting to regrow.

Within six weeks,

lush and green,
blowing in the wind,

there's wildflowers,

there's insects, butterflies...

I call it my happy place.

I think people need to accept
the symbiotic nature of fire.

Indigenous people
have always used fire,

and we need to bring that back.

A hundred years
of fire suppression

has made the forests
more and more dangerous,

and climate change
is making it worse.

We want to get cultural burning
back on the land

so we can burn it when we want

to make the communities safe,

or else catastrophic fire
will happen.

[Mike] A fire has started

in the northeast corner
of the province,

a place called Donnie Creek.

It's running
five to ten kilometres a day.

We're seeing flames

probably 300 feet
above treetops.

It's a beast.

It's probably

somewhere in the neighbourhood
of 18 hours' drive

for me to get there.

My role will be
a fire behaviour analyst,

trying to look
at fire behaviour

and learn its quirks

and get some sense
of its personality.

When it's this big,

there's no way
we're gonna win this one

in a short time frame,

but we might be able
to figure out

how to control where it goes.

So we're calling in crews
from all over the province

to come assist on this one.

My name's Ryan Pascal.

I've been the Salish Nation
Unit Crew Supervisor

for 36 years.

The Salish Unit Crew

is an all-First Nations
unit crew,

uh, the only one left in BC.

I'm 66 now.

I've been here all my life.

We're on unceded territory
of the Lil'wat Nation.

Hey, guys.

[others] Boss.

What's for lunch, lunchtime?

A peanut butter
and honey sandwich.

Oh yeah? [chuckles]

When they started unit crews,

they asked me
if I wanted to run one,

and we got a bunch of young guys
in the gymnasium,

and we started training,

and they said

it was up to me
to pick the crew...

so I made sure I did not, one,

pick a family member
or relative.

I just picked, you know,

I just looked at the guys,
how they got along,

their work ethic.

Uh, you know,
it was so good.

This picture here
is of the original Salish crew,

the first 20,

and we're all
wearing coveralls.

There was no reds
and blue pants then,

it was all coveralls.

That's the first uniform
they gave us.

I always think about
the Garnet Fire in '94,

a fire that had it out for us,

and we were running
from the fire

for, like, a week straight,
every day.

I remember one of
the crew members calling me,

he said,
"Get out, the fire is coming."

So we started heading out,

and some of the other crew
was farther down the cat-guard,

and I called them and said,

"We gotta get out.
Go back to the landing, then."

So we were running back,
and we round a corner,

and there's 30-foot flames
on each side of the guard,

and we ran right through.

Made it to the landing,

and ten of my guys
were missing.

I was scared.

I didn't know where they were,

and then finally,
one of the Operations guys

was in a helicopter,

and he called me on the radio
and said,

"Your ten guys are safe.
They're in the main burn.

They're walking towards you,"

and I was standing there
watching 'em walk,

walk out of the smoke,
and I was crying.

And I never forget that.

It's always
in the back of my mind,

the Garnet Fire.

That was terrifying.

It was at that point

I made it a point
to know every family member,

because I had 20 wives
thinking about them at home,

to get back to,

and I had 53 kids,

and I made it a point
to know all their names.

That way... and that was
always in the back of my mind.

Those are stories
you never bring home,

you never tell.

Yeah.

There was 16
all-First Nations unit crews,

and now there's only one left.

I think one of the reasons

is because
of the hiring process.

They made the bootcamps
where you had to travel so far,

and some
First Nations communities

are kind of isolated,

so I think it's got
a lot to do with that.

-Looks good.

A lot of it was due
to the fitness test.

When you don't pass the test,
you lose your position.

It's really tough to do.

I mean, I failed it
for the first time this year,

so there's a big change
in the guard

on the unit crew now.

It was hard for the whole crew,

because he's been our crew supe
for 30-plus years,

and I currently took the role
just this past spring.

Yeah. Yeah.

[Matt] It's big boots
to fill, for sure.

He's been the living legend
of the Salish Unit Crew,

but it's been
an easy transition

just because
he's been shaping me

for the last five years.

I want to help my community
grow again.

That's, like,
such a big passion of mine,

is to get
First Nations fire-fighting.

How long is the drive
to Donnie Creek?

Uh, about 14 hours.

[Ryan] Matt is a great kid.

He's really smart.

He's a real good teacher,
a way better teacher than I am,

and he can really talk.

Think that's everything.

Hope so.

[Ryan] When they were
rolling out the gate,

going to a fire
the first time

when I wasn't crew supe,

I thought it was really
gonna bother me,

and I watched 'em
ride out of the gate

on their trucks,

and I said,
"It's not even bothering me."

Maybe it was time.

And I know
he would keep the crew safe.

[Matt] We've been called
to the Donnie Creek wildfire.

It's a huge fire,
the biggest I've ever been on.

We'll be sharing
a lot of workload

with all the other crews,

and if everybody's
controlling their piece,

hopefully we could get
this fire under control.

[Mike] In
the Ignition Specialist role,

there's five or six
of us provincially,

so it's a very limited asset.

I know that I'm getting

to the twilight years
of my career,

so I requested

that I would like
to take on an apprentice.

[Morgan] I was thrilled
when he asked me

if I wanted to be his trainee
for his last couple years.

I recently had a kid,
and then,

some of the conversations
I was having with my wife

was, you know,
maybe I'll take it easy

on these next few years,

be around for the family
a little bit more,

but the family supported it,

and Mike is a legend,
and I just couldn't pass it up.

[Mike] We synced minds
like you wouldn't believe.

It honestly has to be
one of the best moves

I ever made
within my career.

[news report] BC has never
experienced a fire

this enormous.

[news report] The massive
Donnie Creek Wildfire

continues to burn
out of control.

[news report] BC has now
passed a grim milestone

in its wildfires.

[news report] Evacuation orders
and alerts remain in effect.

[news report] It's now grown
to more than 520,000 hectares.

[news report] It's now one of
the largest ever on record.

[Mike] When we got the call
to go to Donnie,

I called Morgan,
and I said, "Well,

time to put
your big-boy pants on,

because I've decided

that you're in
the front seat this year,

and I'm just gonna be
in the back."

[rotors beating]

[Morgan] I've never seen
any fire that large.

It was unreal.

[Mike] I've been
dealing with fire so long,

I just looked at it,

and I was just in awe
of Mother Nature's power.

It wants to do
what it wants to do,

and it's very challenging

for us
to try and corral it

in that sort of
fire behaviour...

'cause if those fire conditions
went running that aggressively,

there's virtually nothing
we can do.

There is no air tanker
in the world

that's big enough
to put that out.

[Morgan]
The perimeter of the fire

is over 800 kilometres.

We don't even have
enough resources

to get all the way
around something like that,

much less suppress
the entire fire,

so we're prioritizing
areas of the fire

where we can have success.

It's shifting your mind,

knowing that we're not
going to put this fire out,

and we just have to try
to manage it the best we can.

[Mike] We gotta try
and lay down a line of fire

that connects
these two points.

The distance from here
all the way around to here

is 50 kilometres.

We wanna try
and prevent the fire

from progressing south,

where most of the valleys are
that are under threat,

so we're gonna undertake
what we call

"ignition missions."

The objective
is to find something

we can tie off from a river,

a highway
that we can burn off from.

We will then
lay fire on that line

to get it to go back
into the existing wildfire.

It's getting dark,
and we can't fly at night,

so we're gonna
send in a ground crew

to do some burning overnight,

so that when morning comes,

we should be ready
for the big burn tomorrow.

This is Salish One.

We're just
arriving at the site now,

and we'll be burning
in about 30 minutes.

We showed up at the fire,

and we recognized
what we needed to burn.

We had to figure out
our A to B,

so where we're gonna start

and where we're gonna end
for this burn.

Head towards the road,

and then turn into
the next field

heading downhill.

[Matt] Our first task
is to protect

some oil
and gas infrastructure

by burning the fuel
that's around it.

We're pushing in a guard
from the top here,

it's working down.

Uh, it's a couple spots there
across their guard,

as well, we're gonna try
to capture and burn off.

[Matt] I love what I get to do.

The crew is a family,

and we also have families
from the communities

on the crew as well,

my brother,
three of my cousins,

I take their safety
very important.

The long pink you have.

We were called in
to use drip torches

because it's more precise
and you have more control

than, say, something like
a heli-torch,

just dropping flames from above.

You can't use the helicopters
at night, anyways.

Nighttime's a great opportunity,

because the heat's down,
the winds are usually shifted,

so right now,
it's in our favour.

[radio crackles]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Matt] Okay, copy.

[Matt] It's always
a little challenging

working in the dark.

You're walking
on uneven ground,

and it's dark,
but the fire's bright,

so you can't see
where you're going.

It's dangerous work.

It is 3:40 a.m. right now.

We are burning off

and thickening the guard
for the morning shift.

It's looking sweet.

I think we'll be
giving them good product,

so, happy with that.

Through my career,

I used to struggle
quite hard, right,

with any structure I lost,

or any ground
that you start to lose,

but then I noticed
if I was too emotional,

I stopped making
the proper calls,

and the proper call's
always gonna be

pull my guys out
if it's not safe to action.

We don't have to win
every battle,

but we always have
to make it home at night,

so I just had to let the stress
of a little bit of loss

roll off my shoulders,

and then I could make
proper judgement calls again.

Yeah, go ahead.

Just behind the cat there.

We had to bring in a camp

due to the level
of activity here.

We have all our facilities here.

We have showers.

We have accommodation trailers,

the kitchen trailer,
the catering staff.

We also have office trailers,
I.T. trailers...

A lot of the time,
we might be moving camps

from one fire
directly into another fire,

especially in years
where there's fires

here, there, and everywhere.

The camp comes down,
and three days later,

it's up and running
in another location.

[Morgan] So, we decided
to go with the heli-torch

on this burn,

because it's a larger ignition

so it's for
a really quick ignition.

It's to get the intensities
up high

so you have some control,

so it's good
in the boreal fuel types

and the dense
black spruce stands.

[Mike] It is a product

you probably do not
wanna get on your skin.

We have goggles.
We have aprons.

Lots and lots of safety issues
around doing this sort of stuff.

This thing is gonna
be leap-frogging ahead of us

so that it's nowhere near
where we're burning.

The heli-torch
is inherently dangerous

just because the fact

you have
a 45-gallon drum of fuel

hanging below a helicopter.

It's inherently risky,

but everything we do

is careful and methodical,

and that's how
we can get this done

without having any injuries.

[Morgan] We'll have
a three-person mixing crew

that will fuel up
the 45-gallon drums, uh,

mix in the gelling agents...

...hook up the helicopter

as it goes
to do its next mission.

It's a pretty small crew
for such a big mission.

[Mike] We only burn

when the weather conditions
are just right,

so we have to rely heavily

on our weather forecasters
and their intel

before we start
doing anything large.

I try to have
a good understanding

of what they're doing,
what they're trying to do,

what their challenges are
of the day,

so I can try to give them
the information

that will help them
make decisions.

We're gonna bring some cloud

into the north third
of our region

by the end of the day today,

but for the most part,
think about

just one more very hot
and very dry day.

So when we look
closely on here,

we can see
that these points here,

where we have this
streamer of smoke coming off,

those are the fires
that we have in our region.

I try to keep the people
in the Ops seat

up to date

with the freshest
weather information

through the day...

We got Tabernacle,
ridge top...

-Yeah.
-...gusting 46.

Okay.

[Jesse] ...to confirm whether
it's following the story

that I told them
in the morning.

So far, the winds
are not as strong

as I thought
they were gonna be.

Thank god. [laughing]

Yeah, I love this one.

It's just an old-school
black-and-white weather chart.

When folks ask me,

"What do you think about this,"

like, "flashy,
colourful weather loop?"

I say, "Well, I kinda like
this one, still, better."

All the little squiggles
tell a story

that help me get a better idea
of what is gonna happen.

Every day is a puzzle...

a long series of mistakes
and successes.

[laughing]

Hey, Len, am I stealing
somebody's lunch?

Just peanut butter?

-Oh, that is mine. Oh, yeah!
-[laughter]

'Cause it got
my marmalade on it.

Oh, my god.

I would've been gone.

Oh, my god.

I took some marmalade
from the A&W.

[laughing]

The fire doesn't
wait for us, so...

we just, yeah, make it
and go when we can.

I like to go heavy
on the peanut butter,

because it's the delicious part.

Okay, I think it's safe
to go ahead of me

now that all the spiderwebs
are gone.

[laughter]

[Matt] It's been a lot
of hard, long days.

We're tired,
but we're happy.

Like, we're working
together very well.

It's been really good.

Yeah, for sure.

[Mike] The drum's suspended
under the helicopter,

and the pilot has control
of the trigger,

and when we're talking to him
on the radio,

we'll tell him when to drop
and when not to.

Slow down a little bit.

[Mike] Every one
of these heli-torches

is homemade.

Every of them's
absolutely different.

Helicopter geniuses,
pilots and engineers,

they build them in the hangars
over the winter months.

We were a kilometre away,

you could already feel
the radiant heat from it

coming through the bubble
of the helicopter.

We'll get in-drafting
of 60, 70 kilometres an hour

from that fire
sucking in so much oxygen,

and once we got close,

we could actually feel
the fire in-drafting,

and the pilot told us

he could feel
the helicopter being sucked in.

-Yep.
-That's it.

[Mike] New pilots coming in,

a lot of them don't want
to be doing heli-torching,

and it is a dying art
in the aviation industry,

'cause it's pretty risky

when you have a 45-gallon
drum of gasoline

hanging under the helicopter.

[Morgan]
Flying in those conditions,

it can be really unnerving,

but I have a lot
of trust and faith

in the pilots
that we're flying with.

They're very experienced.

If they're uncomfortable
with it,

they're not gonna fly in it,

as well as, you know,
with Mike and myself,

one "no" is a no-go,

so although it's unnerving,

we're not putting ourselves
in any unnecessary danger.

You're always thinking of,

"Okay, if something
goes wrong here,

like, what are our options?"

[Mike] We're running
parallel to the road here

all the way down to the end.

Everything's burning
quite nicely.

It's, um, in-drafting into
the main body of the fire.

I was building confidence
as I was going through the burn.

Good work.

[Morgan] If I started,
you know, to doubt myself,

or question what I was doing,
if I was doing the right thing,

I would just look
in the back seat,

and Mike would give me a nod.

It'd have been a totally
different experience for me

if Mike was not
sitting in the back seat.

[Morgan] Yeah.

[Mike] We had
two helicopters staged there,

and they both had
heli-torches attached.

We had
a three-person ground crew

assisting us with the trailer
that would run down the road,

and when the pilot

was getting close
to being empty,

he would tell us
to mix another barrel.

[Mike] The crew would mix it.

We'd come in
with the helicopter,

they'd switch the full
out for the empty.

One, two, three!

Open!

[Mike] The crew would run
down the road further.

He would keep burning,

and they would just
hop-scotch along.

[Mike] Unfortunately,

I don't believe
the public has a real good idea

of what we're doing,

and we get a lot of people
reacting

that, "Oh, my gosh,

you're gonna destroy the forest,
take out towns."

That sort of stuff,
that... is untrue.

There was video produced online
of myself and Morgan

doing aerial ignitions
in the Donnie Creek Wildfire,

and I actually had
people accusing me

of being
an international terrorist

for destroying
Canada's forests...

...when, in fact,

we're using fire
to help control wildfire.

[Matt] So, the Salish Crew

got split
into different segments today,

so they have
a couple different objectives.

We got some people
chasing the spots,

some people, um,

checking our last burn line
from last night,

making sure that held.

Go for Delta 1.

[Len] Well, we've run into
a bit of a problem.

Come on!

That's not going anywhere.

[Len] Unfortunately,
we can't get out of this,

we're stuck,
so, we have to go, uh,

take all our gear off,

and go the rest
of the way on foot

and get to the spot.

Problem is, we got about
40 lengths of hose to haul in,

so, uh, that's gonna be
a bit of a workout.

[Matt] Rex is our newest
and youngest recruit.

Picked him up this spring.

Really happy with him.

He's really hard-working
and really eager.

The biggest piece for me,
that warms my heart,

is it's really exciting

to see new generations
coming into wildfire,

new First Nations stepping up

and becoming
part of the unit crew.

Really proud of Rex.

[Len]
How strong are your legs, Rex?

[Rex] Stronger than my arms.

Then we'll see, boy.

[Matt]
First Nations have been, like,

taking care
of these lands forever.

-Okay, uh, send the water!

BC is built
on First Nations territory,

so trying to get the people
back into the forest

is a very important thing,

and they'll be protecting
their own territory.

[Len] Okay,
we've reached the spot,

but it's, uh,
moving pretty fast,

but we've got the hose on it.

[Matt] The original Salish,
we pretty much

created the standard
that BC Wildfire follows now,

because they're so tight-knit,

they have such a high standard,
they knew what to do.

They dialed in what works,
what doesn't,

and what was safe,

and they pushed it forward

for almost all crews
to follow after that.

It's been pretty sweet.

We want to get their knowledge,
so that way,

we can continue fighting fires
how they fought fire.

If we have to, we can
just start cleaning up that one.

-Yep, 100%.
-Okay.

I'm just hanging on to,

everybody's path moved on, eh?

Ryan's gone. Reno's gone.

It's... but I got
all the young guys now

help do the same thing
I enjoyed for 30 years.

[Matt] When you're
starting to age out,

it gets harder and harder

for older people
and smaller people.

Salish Unit Crew

were probably
the shortest crew overall

in the province.

Unit crews are
usually 220-pound-plus guys,

and Salish,

we're probably averaged
at about 5'9",

'cause we're St'át'imc.

So, there's a fun story.

Chilcotins and St'át'imc

used to be warring
and everything.

Um, Chilcotins are a lot taller

than, uh, Líl'wat
or St'át'imc Nation,

and that's because
they have shorter trees,

so up on the plateau,

they have to peek
over the trees,

so they grew,

while, uh,
St'át'imc has the big trees.

We had to bend under
their branches and everything,

and we shrunk,

so that's why we got

the shortest crew
in the province.

The wind's in our favour
right now,

if it doesn't go that way.

[Mike] Everything
was going well,

and all of a sudden...

It looks like
the heli-torch stopped working.

I think we need
to head back to the airstrip

to have a look at it.

[Mike] ...the second helicopter
had a malfunction with it...

This one's done
until I, uh, put a new motor in.

That motor just
shouldn't be that tight.

...and the machine
went unserviceable for the day,

so that puts the pressure
back on the original pilot,

that he's gotta carry us
all day long.

[Morgan]
About 15, 20 minutes later...

Oh, no!

...our second
heli-torch malfunctioned.

It stopped igniting
the, uh, jelly fuels.

[Mike] And in that situation,

the pilot who built it
stripped the thing down.

He wasn't sure

if he was gonna fix the machine,

so that was
a little bit unnerving,

because we didn't have
another heli-torch

so that we could
continue lighting that line.

'Cause, if not,

we've got day one
over on the left side,

and we're on the east side,

and we're trying
to join them together.

If we don't join them,

then we're opening ourselves up
for a real bad scenario,

because if the wind does shift,

it's got a hole to go through,
totally unprotected.

[Morgan]
It was a very stressful time.

We did have quite a bit of fire
on the landscape

that wasn't secured

or checked into
another control line,

so there was stress there.

Like, "Okay,
now what are we gonna do?"

You know, but we're trying
to tie in...

[Morgan]
We're trying to come up

with some contingency plans.

It's a pretty major problem.

[Len]
I'm not even gonna watch, Rex!

[laughs] I know, right?

[Len] Be careful
with that knife.

[Rex chuckles]

[Matt] When I first started
in 2013,

wildfires were mean still,

but if you got onto
the big fire,

that's "the big fire
for the season" type thing,

and, uh, nowadays,

every fire's
the big fire of the season

compared to what it used to be.

When I first joined,

I had a 45-day fire season,
and then, years like this year,

we've probably seen people

hit 100 days
this year, type thing,

so we've been seeing
a lot more burnout,

is what everybody's
been calling it.

It's hard on the guys
to be away from their families

for 100 days out of the year.

I got an anniversary
coming up.

-When's yours?
-How many years on that?

On the 20th.

-Of this month?
-Of this month.

-Mm.
-Our 21st wedding anniversary.

-Whoo!
-[Len chuckles]

-Attaboy.
-Yeah.

You know,
missing another one.

I stay in contact with her
every day,

and let her know, assure her
that everything's okay.

No matter what time it is,
when I call her,

if it's 5:30 in the morning,

she doesn't care,
as long as I call.

The passion
keeps me going.

We're saving stuff.

When I first started,
there was no cellphones,

and now everybody's
got a cellphone,

and everybody's on that,

whatever they call,
Facebook and that, and...

and nowadays,
they-they're talking every night

with their families,

so I imagine
that makes it easier,

but they're out there
every deployment.

[Len] But it does get lonely,
and, uh, roads get long.

Right here!

But, I only got, what,

ten more years to go,
and then I can retire?

[laughing]

[helicopter overhead]

[Mike] Luckily,
the pilot had the spare parts.

He put it in,
we put it all back together,

and it worked like a dream,

and we were able to continue
and finish that mission.

It was
a very satisfying feeling,

the two lines of fire
joining together,

and he said, "Well,

I got about ten gallons
left in my barrel.

We're done."

[Matt] Okay, guys!

Let's pack it up.
We're outta here.

[Ryan] For the Salish crew, uh,

I think
they're in a good place.

They got a lot of young guys
that are really eager,

in good shape,

have no problem
with the fit test.

Now I'm
a First Nations coordinator.

I travel around

recruiting First Nations
for unit crews.

I enjoy seeing
the young kids coming on,

and I enjoy helping them out.

Who knows the hazards of,
uh, tripping hazards?

[Ryan] This year,

because Salish has
seven openings,

which is rare,

we had
a First Nations bootcamp.

It was great to see them
come out of their shell

after the first day,

and it was,
it was something to see,

I was really happy with it.

Okay, let's start
following Stevie up!

All right.

[Ryan] We're gonna have
six of them come on

from the bootcamp

that pass the fitness test,
pass the written test,

and they all did great.

I wished
I could take them all.

I think Salish
is in a good place right now.

I'm gonna retire next year,

and it's gonna be hard
to leave this place.

[Morgan] You're seeing
the highway stay open

or the critical infrastructure,

um, still standing
at the end of the day,

and it-it's very rewarding.

[Mike]
It'll eventually get put out

by the snow and the rains
this winter,

and next year,
it will start to heal itself,

and things will start to regrow.

Morgan did incredibly well.

He's gonna be...

probably one of the best
prescribed burners

and ignition specialists
in the country.

He's gonna be a superstar.

[Morgan] We've talked about
when I get in a jam,

I'll be calling Mike,
and I have Mike on speed-dial,

and he said he'll be there
to answer the phone.

He'll be missed.

I've loved doing this job.

I'm always thinking,

"If I had this mountain,
and if I had a fire,

where would
I be actioning it?"

Yeah, once fire's in your head,
you can't get it out.

I think there's
a lot of firefighters out there

that truly become addicted
to putting out fire.

You really come
to actually love it.

You love the smell of it,

you love the look of it,
and you love to beat it out,

but there's just days where,

no matter where
you look on the landscape,

fire's doing its thing,

and Mother Nature
is just in total control.

Fire's always been
the centre of my life,

and being on the crew
is the best job that I've had,

but it's interesting
to see the awareness

that the only way to stop
a lot of these fires

is to have other fires
on the landscape.

It's certainly a shift
in the mentality on our end.

I think people are realizing
that what we've done in the past

is kinda biting us
in the butt right now.

Okay, we gotta get going.
Let's go, guys.

I really do enjoy
being out there.

It's exciting,

and you're with
really good people,

but I also wanna be a part

of bringing back good fire
on the landscape.

Like, how can we, like,
shift our mindset

that this isn't
such a bad thing?

We can use it
for bettering the ecosystems.

I do love the job itself.

It's just so meaningful.

We want to do a good job,

and just do what we can for BC,

and just make sure
that everybody is safe.

[♪♪♪]

[♪♪♪]