Читать книгу Captured by Fire - Chris Czajkowski - Страница 16

Fred

Precipice, July 14–15

On Friday, July 14, Rob arrived early and began dropping buckets of water mixed with retardant in front of the fire. It had become trapped behind a bend of the Hotnarko River but was still festering in the rock bluffs above it. His efforts were concentrated on the upper edge of the front. Incident Command was intent on keeping the fire as low on the slopes as possible. Their main fear was that if it crested onto the plateau, the westerly winds would drive it toward Anahim Lake. Twenty firefighters representing one unit crew had finally arrived to fight the fire on the ground. They and an IA team of five were deployed in the Atnarko Canyon to prevent the fire from crossing to the west side of the Atnarko River. They were also battling to keep the fire from reaching the walking bridge that crossed the river at the foot of the Stillwater. We were disappointed that they were not fighting the front closest to us, but recognized that the terrain there was too difficult for a ground assault.

Over the next couple of days we continued to make minor improvements to our structural protection. The Comox Fire Rescue team laid a large loop next to four of the major Taylor Ranch buildings—extra sprinklers were added to the loop. There were ten buildings that had to be protected in all. A second line fed a large nozzle that Caleb had to manoeuvre to protect the remaining buildings, including his house, a fuel shed and the first cabin built in the valley around 1912—a line-man cabin to service the original telegraph line that connected Bella Coola to the rest of British Columbia. The sprinklers were served by one of the pumps that Lee had purchased. A second pump was connected to a large line and nozzle that Caleb had to drag around to areas not reached by the sprinklers. He complained bitterly about the way everything had been laid out. He would never have faith in the structural protection personnel from that time onward.

Caleb asked me for any spare plumbing fittings I might have. There were problems attaching the hoses borrowed from our friends in Anahim Lake to the new equipment. I threw all the fittings I had into a tub and lashed it to the ATV, then grabbed a second tub and added more short hose lengths. The ATV had been difficult to start all spring and it stalled regularly. That morning it sputtered to life. When I arrived at the Taylor Ranch, Caleb was working with one of the structural protection technicians to weld two metal fittings together to make a specialized coupler. He was focused on the repair. I sensed that his coworker was already impressed with his ingenuity so I just nodded and dumped the parts and hoses next to the work bench.

Jade had phoned a few days earlier asking if we could retrieve some important documents from her office in the Red Roof House; since I was already halfway there I decided to get the stuff. I hated being away from our farm with the fire so close and Monika all alone to defend it. A yellow smoky haze and the misfiring ATV added to my dread. The smoke thickened as I drove up the final steep hill. The normally yellow arnica that grew at the forest’s edge next to the buildings glowed orange in the smoky haze as if the fire was already there. I increased the throttle on the ATV to prevent it from stalling while I rushed into the house with the two tubs. There were three accordion files, a box of papers and a camera on the shelves I had been directed to. I never bothered to try to sort anything out. I stuffed the tubs and grabbed the camera. The ATV was still running when I re-emerged into the smoke. I didn’t stop at the Taylor Ranch. Both the smoke and my heart eased when I entered our first meadow.

The biggest limitations for protecting buildings threatened by wildfire is the availability of water for the sprinklers and fuel for the pumps. We and the Taylor Ranch buildings were close to the river and would have plenty of water as long as the river remained high. We had, however, only a limited amount of gas in the valley.

The Taylor house, though, was about four hundred metres away from the river, and it presented major difficulties. On the weekend of July 8 and 9, David J and Troy had dammed a spring above the Taylor house, creating a reservoir of water to supply sprinklers on the house. However, the flow from the spring was so weak that the pump had to be run at low idle to avoid drawing air. David J had completed the installation of a large water tank on his forwarder and drove it into the valley with the idea of filling it from the river and alternately hauling water to the Taylor and the Red Roof Houses. This required yet another pump.

The structural protection crew installed a twenty-thousand-litre bladder that resembled a plastic backyard swimming pool, a large Forestry pump and a loop around the Taylor’s house with five sprinklers to keep it, the woodshed and a cabin that had been built in the 1920s protected. The bladder was filled from David’s forwarder and the trickling spring. A barn, below the house and thirty metres away, was only poorly protected with two weak sprinklers.

By late afternoon, the crew’s work shifted to the Red Roof House. It and the neighbouring shed presented serious problems. The house was a beautiful structure located on steep slopes one hundred metres above grassy meadows that had not been cut for a year. We had learned and witnessed how fires like to rage up slopes. If the Precipice Fire were to reach the dry meadows below the house, it would be very difficult to protect the buildings. Also, the house and shed were closely surrounded by pine and Douglas fir, and had large piles of combustible material—scrap lumber and the like—in proximity. We were amazed that the Comox crew would attempt to protect these buildings, but they welcomed the challenge. They installed another twenty-thousand-litre bladder and Forestry pump to service a loop of sprinklers. David J had to fill both the bladder and an old cistern above the house to keep everything going. If the fire was to get this far there would be only one shot at protecting this property. It would be too dangerous to go through an inferno to refill the gas or water—whichever ran out first.

Hoss directs David J’s forwarder to the Taylor house. Photo by Fred Reid.

The battle with the fire began to escalate. Two IA crews had established a number of helipads and a staging area in the Atnarko Valley. Mark brought a contract for me to sign authorizing the Forest Service to use our meadow as a staging area. I gladly gave my signature and he offered me a loonie. “You have to take it,” he said. “Our financial officer will insist that you have it to make the contract valid.” The loonie sat on the coffee table in our porch throughout the entire summer.

A second mid-sized helicopter, which pilots and firefighters referred to as a “medium,” was contracted and piloted by Randy. He and Rob began cycling in a synchronized dance over the leading edge of the fire. Rob had become more sociable and we visited whenever he had some downtime. He cautioned us that a helicopter could not put a fire out. They were only keeping it cool until they could get firefighters on the ground.

Monika and I began to feel that we were in very good hands. We were at last able to relax a little.