Christian Nally's News

The forest fire status assessments and rehab planning continued today with a helicopter tour of the burned out area. I took a bunch of photos.

Flying, photography and GPSing all combined into one activity! How much fun was that ?!

written Jul 25, 2006 8:29 AM

Dearest Galiano-philes,

Here is my account of the last few rotations of the earth. It's been quite a ride and all appears to have ended as well as could be hoped.

I forget precisely when the initial call came out, perhaps 4 p.m. "All South Galiano Fire Department Pagers please respond to Guston road to a fire in the gravel pit". We were in gear and enroute in minutes and already knew that it was going to be a big one, but nothing impresses like the first views of a large amount of flame pushing into a tinderbox of forest. We likely had as many as thirty people on scene right away.

Found yourself trapped in a burning building lately? Pinned by flames with no way out? Had you thought of just smashing your way through a gyprock wall? It's easier than you might think... throw in turn-out gear, do it blindfolded and you've got the makings of a rockin' party!

This weekend's adventure was a Rapid Intervention Team firefighting training course. The class was run on Salt Spring Island so I took the boat over and back, staying in Ganges Harbour for the Saturday night.

The weekend was basically about learning how to retrieve a fallen comrade from a burning building. To simulate the low visibility we got to do the whole exercise blindfolded.