Ahead of a much-feared fire season, Canada trains its new firefighters [En images]

In 2023, Canada, the second largest country in the world, experienced the worst season in its history. Fires which served as an electric shock to many residents. “I said to myself: ‘It’s my turn, I’m going to go,’” says Jean-Philippe Lavoie, originally from Quebec. Aged 36, this trained forestry technician was considering a career change. Last year’s fires confirmed his desire to take the plunge. To master the handling of the equipment (pump systems, lances, etc.), he followed a week of training near Quebec City at the beginning of May, which the AFP attended.

Among the dozens of new recruits, several are forestry technicians; others, mountain guides. Most have never faced a fire. Gathered in small groups around a lake in a wooded area, they take notes, notebooks in hand. “We are preparing to face seasons that are more demanding, after an extraordinary year 2023,” explains Philippe Bergeron, spokesperson for the Society for the Protection of Forests Against Fire.

To cope with longer and more intense seasons due to global warming, Quebec plans to recruit 160 additional firefighters within two years, “an increase in numbers by a third,” specifies Philippe Bergeron. The other Canadian provinces also show increasing numbers and budgets for firefighting.

I hope not to relive such big seasons

Last year, “it was chaos, both for equipment and staff,” confides Francis Brousseau, whose red jacket lost its shine. “I hope I don’t have such big seasons again,” he said. Mobilized from April to September, this 27-year-old firefighter remembers grueling days of up to 15 or 16 hours of work. However, the latter was not in its first season and has already been deployed throughout Canada, Australia and the United States.

More than 15 million hectares burned, eight firefighters killed

In 2023, fires affected the country from east to west, burning more than 15 million hectares. And cost the lives of eight firefighters and pushed the authorities to evacuate more than 235,000 people.

Fire season is not a sprint, it’s more of a marathon

And the start of the 2024 season worries everyone in a country where drought is rife in many regions. In the West, this month of May is already marked by the first violent fires and the evacuation of thousands of people. “The fire season is not a sprint, it’s more of a marathon,” recalls Francis Brousseau. And a marathon in often difficult conditions, because many fires are in very remote areas, therefore difficult to access. They therefore sometimes have to pull the lances hundreds of meters to convey the water and often cover several kilometers on foot in a dense forest, with heavy and bulky equipment on their backs.

A large part of the work also consists of clearing or turning over the thick layer of humus to prevent fires from spreading underground. Long and tedious work.

Jonathan Rocque, a former mountain guide in France, relies on “team spirit” to overcome all these challenges, even if he knows that “once on the ground, there will be adrenaline and stress of the first fires. “It will be different.”