WILDFIRE TRAINING
Firefighters getting ready
B.C.'s first batch of new wildfire firefighters will finish boot camp this week, part of a record number of applicants hoping to work for the B.C. Wildfire Service ahead of fire season.
More than 2,000 people applied for jobs with the wildfire service between October and April, more than double the number that applied last year, due, in part, to an improved hiring process aimed at attracting applicants in rural and remote communities.
Only 200 new wildfire fighters will make the cut.
The boot camp involves “long days and a lot of physical work,” said Dustin Karolat, a staff development specialist.
To work as a wildfire firefighter, applicants must pass an initial screening and do well in an interview where they are assessed based on behavioural competencies and technical questions related to firefighting. Top-scoring recruits are invited to boot camp, but before that, they must pass a timed fitness test that involves running a course carrying a backpack and equipment up and over a ramp. “It is tricky,” admitted Karolat. About five per cent of recruits fail the fitness test the first time, with about half going on to pass it on their second attempt.
At boot camp, the first of which is taking place in Merritt this week, recruits learn on-the-ground skills, like how to dig a hand guard, set up pumps and hoses, safety procedures and navigation. Every morning begins with fitness drills, with an exam on the final day.
After boot camp wraps up, recruits fill vacant positions across the province, with the remainder of the 1,100 crew positions typically filled by returning firefighters.
The process will continue over the next month, with three more boot camps running in the coming weeks. Once posted to a specific base, firefighters work Monday to Friday until fire activity kicks up and sets the agenda.
Last year, one of the worst fire seasons in the province's history, the B.C. Wildfire Service employed 568 full-time permanent staff and 1,592 seasonal staff for a total of 2,160 personnel.
The wildfire service plans to add four new “initial attack” crews this year for a total of 162. The three- or four-person quick-response teams include smoke jumpers and helicopter crews. That is in addition to 30 twenty-person units that specialize in sustained operations.
The B.C. Wildfire Service is evolving into a year-round service, with a 56 per cent increase in full-time permanent staff between 2021 and 2023.
Karolat, who lives in Smithers, used to teach math in the winter and fight fires in the summer. Now he helps train crew leaders, in additional to updating training material for various teams. Karolat
said he felt positive about the crews who will protect B.C. communities and forests this summer, despite predictions that it will be another difficult fire season.
“There's a lot of experienced folks, and they've seen a lot of fire,” he said. “It was a bad year last year, and the year before that, and three years before that, so this is not foreign to us.”
The new recruits should feel confident that they were hired because they are good candidates, he said.
“They will do a good job.” In recent years, the B.C. Wildfire Service has worked to encourage applicants in rural and remote communities, including a dedicated training and recruitment model for First Nations. A First Nations boot camp is being offered in the Coastal Fire Centre this year after a successful pilot in the Cariboo Fire Centre last year.