Page 21 - November (Remembrance)2020

Battlefield Conditions - Heros Lost The rain they pray for is absent - replaced with
by Ken Armstrong densely falling ash and charred insects. Burned
tree roots allow towering giants to fall without
The enemy was advancing quickly through the forest on
warning and dead and decaying animals litter the
a broad front. The good guys, a few defenders, were
burned area. Everything is burned black, except for
spread along a thin line they hoped they could hold
using their rather ineffective weapons. High pulse rates the sky that glows an eerie orange. If it sounds like
a trip to hell; well, that’s a close analogy. The crews
and fear gripped the men and women warriors because
pray for their lives and aerial support. Fixed wing
the stakes were high. They could be about to lose not
only their land, but also their lives. The blustering wind and helicopter tankers can douse flame fronts on
many fires.
was behind the evil adversary and smoke from
advancing fire was intense. Trees exploded and
shrapnel and embers bombarded the soldiers. The roar
of the onslaught overwhelmed the defenders’ senses.
As the battle extended into the brightly lit night they
became exhausted by the lengthy combat.

The rotary wing warriors can deliver all manner of
supplies to aid suppression efforts and provide
immediate extraction if the fire surrounds crews
and starts to close in.

This war was different. The advancing enemy was
neither human nor humane in any sense for it was a
raging forest fire. Nonetheless, the human defenders
were under assault and at great risk. Firefighters are
forced to face overpowering conditions for long periods;
often in retreat and running for their lives from a raging
inferno.

Escaping a storming fire front they are blinded and
choking on smoke and chased by intense heat that
bubbles the skin on their backs. They must run for their
lives. Some don’t succeed. Make no mistake – these
veterans of forest fires are no less heroes than those
who go to war. They die, not by bullet, but by smoke
and flame and harassed by the forest growth they are
trying to save. They are under siege for long hours
during a fire assault commonly facing exhaustion.
This commonly happens during strong winds that
As a “fling-wing” pilot fresh out of the military in the allow the flames to jump for hundreds of meters or
spring of 1972 and flying for Canwest Aviation I was even miles as embers drop from towering columns
flying on my first fire near Fort Providence N.W.T. with a
of cloud.