FOREST AND ENVIRONMENT

THERE’S LITTLE DOUBT that the

son of record drought and high tem-
peratures. Fires were primarily caused
by lightening strikes, careless smokers
and careless camp fires that resulted
in over 265,000 hectares to burn up.

The total firefighting bill exceeded
$550 million, putting additional strain
on the province's resources. The eco-
nomic impact on property owners, the
province and workers, is still being
added up.

Premier Gordon Campbell has
appointed former Manitoba premier
Gary Filmon to head a review of the
province's response to the forest fires
and make recommendations by

® February 15, 2004. The affects of the
fires were felt far and wide and there’s

little doubt that such hearings would be
well attended should they take place. In
the provincial Auditor-General’s 2001
report the goverment was put on
notice that it had to anticipate the types
of interface fires which spread into the
communities of Kelowna, Barrie, Louis
Creek and Cranbrook. It was pointed
out that dangerous fuels have to be
eliminated from the underbrush and
proximity of communities.

Although they have a shocking
impact, fires are natural occurrances,
especially in the B.C. Interior and other
parts of the country where, historically,
forest fires sweep through vast areas.
They open up the forest canopy to sun-
light and spur undergrowth of shrubs,
grasses and herbs. In some forms of
pine, the heat from fire helps open the
cones, naturally reseeding and regen-
erating the forest.

A need to review fire management

Provincial government was warned in 2001 Auditor General’s report

PHOTO COURTESY BC FOREST SERVICE

= A Martin Mars water bomber hits an Osoyoos forest fire in mid-July.

PHOTO COURTESY TOLKO INDUSTRIES

& An aerial photo of the Tolko Louis Creek mill show the ferocity of fire damage. The mill will not be rebuilt.

THIS PAST SUMMER IWA mem-
bers in the B.C. Interior were affected
by the worst forest fires since 1985. A
Tolko Industries sawmill and planer in
Louis Creek burnt to the ground on the
August long weekend, throwing 180
IWA Local 1-417 members out of work
(see page six). Many members lost their
homes and everything they had when
raging fires swept through Louis Creek
and the nearby community of Barriere.
. On October 3, Tolko announced that it
would not rebuild the mill.

Other IWA Locals were affected
because mills ran out of logs due to the
extraordinary fire season. In IWA Local
1-405 Slocan Forest Products mills in
Radium and Slocan were closed in

i gust as loggers couldn’t get into
‘bush. Tembec's Cranbrook mill ran

it of wood too while union members
the company's mills in Elko and
Flats ran short of logs and went
for two weeks. In addition, the

Dave Haggard (r.) accepts a $5,000
donation from the USWA District 3’s Ken
Neumann for the Interior Benevolent Fund

community of Cranbrook was threat-
ened with a giant fire on its doorsteps.

In IWA Local 1-423, two Pope and
Talbot mills (Grand Forks and Mid-
Way) were threatened by log shortages
while the company's Castelgar mill
nearly ran out of wood. The same went
for local union members at the
Weyerhaeuser mills in Princeton and
Okanagan Falls and Local 1-417's
Weyco mill in Kamloops, which went

Impact on the IWA severe

Record B.C. fire season takes toll on local unions

on one shift. In Merrit, Aspen Planer
couldn’t get logs and shut down for a
renovation project. The fire that
destroyed nearly 260 homes in
Kelowna, gathered national media
attention about the devastation that hit
B.C. communities.

Up in Williams Lake Local 1-425
truckers were not able to get out in the
Chilcotin Plateau due to fire. The
largest fire in the province, bumed in
the Chilko Lake area, putting pressure
on log supplies for local mills. “As if
the U.S. softwood lumber tariffs, rising
Canadian dollar and markets weren’t
enough, the fire season made things
worse for our local unions,” says [WA
National President Dave Haggard.
“There were some serious hits on the
membership to make it even a tougher

year.

Fundraising efforts by the Interior
Benevolent Fund, has raised over
$50,000 so far. (see photo this story).

Firefighters use numerous
techniques to do their jobs

Forest fires can exceed tempera-
tures of 800 degrees Celsius and cre-
ate their own fearsome weather sys-
tems, vapourizing everything in their
paths. Hot air shoots up in the air and
cold air is sucked underneath, creat-

PHOTO COURTESY BC FOREST SERVICE

= The hard work of firefighting.

ing violent winds that no firefighting
effort can get anywhere near.

Once the fires are detected, the
British Columbia Forest Service
swings into action in certain ways,
depending on the type of fire, and
resources and manpower available.
They can drop in ground crews in
helitack operators with low hovering
choppers. Or they use the rappatack
technique in remote and rough ter-
rain where there is no access by road.
Especially trained firefighters rappel
from ropes hanging off choppers.

The firetack method involves run-
ning fire hoses in from trucks or other
water sources, either natural or
portable. And the paratack crews are
used in remote areas as well. They
parachute into a fire zone.

The service can coordinate aerial
bombardments of water or fire retar-
dants via plane or choppers. Ground
crews often use heavy equipment to
cut fire guards and remove dry fuel.
Most tasks are done by back break-
ing grunt work, using chainsaws,
axes, pulaskis and wrestling with fire
hoses until most dangerous hot spots.
are eliminated.

NOVEMBER 2003 THE ALLIED WORKER | 19