A simple thank you

Brett Tetanish, captain of the volunteer fire department in Brooklyn, N.S., had to keep pausing while responding to reporters’ questions on May 29, tears marking a path down his dirt-covered face.

“It was a good feeling that we were able to save, sorry ... “Tetanish said, taking a moment to steady his voice. “... To save somebody’s house after so, so much destruction.”

The last few days have been exhausting for firefighters like Tetanish, called from sunny spring weekends with their families to drive down smokedarkened highways in hopes of making a difference.

A wildfire in Upper Tantallon, N.S., covering close to 800 hectares has already damaged an estimated 200 homes. About 170 firefighters, including volunteers and career personnel, along with 32 Department of Natural

Resources and Renewables (DNRR) staff, two DNRR helicopters and a water bomber from Newfoundland and Labrador were on the scene Monday, doing their best to keep a terrible situation from getting any worse.

Halifax Fire and Emergency Deputy Chief David Meldrum said it is a heavy burden for firefighters.

“When you’re surrounded and making choices about buildings and trying to decide which building you have the best chance of saving, which buildings perhaps you can’t save or you thought you could save but the fire conditions were such that you had to pull your people away for their safety, it’s very stressful,” he said. “It takes a toll.”

The fire in Upper Tantallon is not the only emergency in the region, though it is the one involving the most risk to property and lives.

An even bigger wildfire burning across almost 10,000 hectares has 40 volunteer fire departments and about 40 DNRR staff engaged in Shelburne County, N.S. In New Brunswick, more than 50 firefighters have been battling a blaze in Stein Lake. Newfoundland and Labrador has already had 67 forest fires this year, and the fire index was high around Labrador City on May 30. P.E.I. has been spared fires, but conditions are dry and burning is banned.

While fires rage, other emergencies — medical calls, motor vehicle accidents, even a cliff rescue in Cape Breton — continue to pull firefighters from their day jobs, homes and hobbies.

“They’re seeing a lot, they’re tired,” Meldrum said.

“Both the professionals and volunteers who would normally be somewhere else. They would be at work; they would be with their families.”

Nova Scotia announced it will pay mileage for volunteer firefighters who travel to another community to help with the effort. It’s a very small token for a sacrifice all Atlantic Canadians are grateful so many are making.

The rest of us have a very simple way we can thank firefighters.

We can stay informed on evacuation orders, be ready to leave at a moment’s notice and keep vehicle gas tanks full.

Above all else, though, no one in Nova Scotia, P.E.I. or New Brunswick should be burning anything outdoors right now — this includes firepits, brush burning and fireworks. If it sparks, don’t light it.