Canada On Fire: Fighting the Largest Canadian Wildfire in Recorded History | Foreign Correspondent

[Music] Canada's fire authorities we've never seen anything like it they're breaking all records here almost 6 000 separate wildfires have burnt all over the country it's the worst forest fire in record history it's never happened before the fires are more intense Canada has been overwhelmed I lost my home I lost my vehicles I lost all my tools so an international force of firefighters thousand strong it's a mammoth effort it's been flown into Health we're all in it together now foreign Coke mor

e than 15 million hectares of thick forest has been scorched Canada's black summer is not over welcome to Fire camp at high level be hot in here the United Nations of firefighters yeah we're working alongside Crews from South Africa Canada the US locked in a daily desperate battle to save homes and lives from the most serious fire threat Canada's ever faced Clinton Newman is with the rural fire service in Queensland here he's acting as crew boss for fire team Charlie 161. it's definitely startin

g to feel like the new Norm the frequency of these International deployments and coming together and sharing of resources on the scale that we've seen probably in the last sort of five to ten years has sort of been growing increasing frequencies [Music] is with the New South Wales forestry Corporation here she works a chainsaw filling dangerous burnt trees two days of woken up with Universal sleep you know you're putting out hot spots in the ash just comes in comes everywhere up here it's daylig

ht for three quarters of the day so you might be fighting the fire for 10 15 hours and not realize that oh my goodness it's 8 30 at night and the sun's still in the middle of the sky so it sort of throws you a little bit every day you get back in you take a big deep breath you all made it [Music] sounds African and contingent has brought more than their fire fighting prowess [Applause] they've also taken on responsibility for lifting the spirits of the entire Camp before the morning briefing get

s underway [Music] [Music] [Music] totally amazing what's happening here it's sort of makes you quite emotional actually it's to see how far they've come and the spirit that they generate amazing but this morning things have taken a serious turn so I ask you now all to take a moment of silence has reached the camp a falling tree in British Columbia has killed a 19 year old firefighter the first fatality of the season unfortunately there was a loss of a firefighter so that's an opportunity to ref

lect on that and acknowledge her contribution and also excuse me it's a stark reminder for all this is dangerous work in fact for much of Alberta today due to Wildfire smoke they call Alberta the Texas of Canada all over the province it's canola crude oil [Music] Cowboy goes on here [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh old cowboy here Clarence Foreigner yeah broke his neck he had to retire his wife caught him with another woman high level Alberta okay every element of Life Is overshadowed by

The ongoing emergency I am a tree planter I basically got a day off because of the smoke the helicopter pilot couldn't fly in this and so that's why we're here we have fires all the way around all pretty much in four directions so it doesn't matter which way the wind goes it really chokes down everyone here in high level has been living through this crisis Fox Lake was evacuated here Chateau was evacuated the town is absolutely full of evacuees [Music] seasonal workers in Timber and oil and gas

normally fill the town's ample motel rooms beds are hard to come by we've just got to high level and scored the last room in town because this whole place is packed and it's not tourists or seasonal workers here this year but fire evacuees who have been staying in these motels not for days but for months [Applause] [Music] I lost my home I lost my vehicles I lost all my tools can't do anything but sit on with my kids [Music] five percent of Canada's population is indigenous this year indigenous

communities have accounted for more than 42 of fire evacuations that was May 2nd when we evacuated been out here living the hotel life since then [Music] been watching these kids playing on this sidewalk That's my boy [Music] said I took this photo as we were leaving oh that was my last look at home Robert labacan his wife and their five kids have been staying here ever since [Music] I was just begging my kids please pack your bags pack your bags we won't be coming home pack everything you can

we just ran couldn't even grab what we we love but pardon my tears this is Ronan born May the 4th during the evacuation he was born mama got into sock and went into labor really yeah yeah wow three and a half thousand people fled Fox Lake 1600 of them lost their homes and the houses Still Standing aren't fit to live in I've been avoiding to going home because I just don't want to see it like Diane's home Survived The Inferno all my arch in my house because I'm an artist too and most of these are

my art like the tattoos she hasn't laid eyes in it in two and a half months until today [Music] these barges are the only way in or out residents are allowed back briefly to collect personal belongings I haven't seen at the smoking Fox Lake I think ever so nice is weird to go back home Fox Lake is a disaster Zone with no electricity or clean water this is all that's left of the police station there is a house right here and right there trailers whose homes do you know them I know them yeah it's

strange holes now on the ground this is my home but luckily our house is okay it just doesn't feel real it's very quiet now no dogs barking because you'd hear dogs everywhere quads going everywhere and all these oats somebody left open our window and then a squirrel got in and then we go down here there's my room's down here exchange coming here and not being able to stay I want to come home and just be home and lay in my bed and sleep for all of these are going with me so now hopefully when I

go back to the hotel room and hang all these up I'll feel a little bit better feel a little bit at home [Music] or surrounded by fire here I have actually nothing to say because I'm scared to endless six hours south the East Prairie metis settlement was given less than an hour's notice to evacuate oh this is by the bridge we're trying to get that path needs to go where's that truck hey the community chairman Ray supernold captured the chaos that followed on his mobile phone with just one old fir

e engine and a small water truck eight men fought through the night to save everything they could EP boys be proud [Music] morning 44 houses were gone the lady that was living here had has like four children little kids in a nutshell that's how it looked in every house that's all that's left that's all that's left [Music] so what was here mate what a nice house I don't know you can see just the pile of mud now foreign forestry wasn't here they came well actually I'm lying first you was here with

cats and for about two three hours they were doing their assessments and they left despite worsening fire Seasons successive governments have slashed Alberta's Wildfire fighting budget just bent the out of that hoping to save taxpayer dollars and quote modernize the force this was their job right they would have put the firewood over there it wouldn't have came into our community and that what really pisses me off because the problem should have stepped in somewhere not the day of the fire to c

all me should have stepped in two three days before I could have did something many many people throughout this fire lost homes structures buildings their livelihood and it's because we didn't have we didn't know what was coming you know what's an hour call eh hey fires come in get the people out [Music] it's brutal that's all I could say Canada's natural environment is the stuff of postcards [Music] but it's also one of the world's biggest exporters of the fossil fuels that drive climate change

the fact they're being burnt somewhere else isn't helping Canada escape the impact it was um clear earlier this morning which was nice and then yeah the smoke moved in which is unfortunate it's a lot worse there's a lot more fires this year but get that with a lot more global warming as well the link to climate change is very clear what we're doing now collectively and that includes in Canada is leading to the type of climate impacts we saw over the summer I think this summer certainly for the

Northern Hemisphere it will be a wake-up call [Music] s it's not just International firefighters who've come to Canada well I would describe it as a global Gathering of climate arsonists the future is a promising Horizon of boundless growth the biggest heterochemical companies on earth have gathered for LNG 2023 liquefied natural gas conference here LNG is being touted as a solution to the climate crisis [Music] is there a sense of irony at all that a conference like this is is happening at a ti

me when half the country is on fight I think it's important this conference is here in Canada because Canada is about to join the world of LNG exporting Nations and going to help Global Climate Change by supporting the displacement of coal by natural gas that's developed in a responsible and sustainable manner the LNG export boom is an awkward issue for Canada's progressive government and its former activist environment Minister I I knew going into politics that I I wouldn't be able to win all m

y battles and and David you also people also have to understand that you know between what scientists are are saying and and the the ability and the agility of government to respond quickly there is an unfortunate delay in British Columbia this year's Fire season is the worst on record currently there are about 2 000 Wildfire Fighters battling more than 350 fires across BC the terrain here is different to Alberta in many parts even more inaccessible firefighters here have taken their methods to

another level call themselves The smokejumpers a rapid response team of parachuting firefighters they can deploy in minutes reach any firefront in the province within two hours but it's not all high octane death defiance [Music] changing the thread so that it matches colors because it's really nice when the colors all match up my jump pants are just a little worn out from all the jumps we've been doing so just patching that up a smoke jumper is basically responsible for the repair maintenance an

d installation or building of all this equipment that we use they're not items you can order [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's by far our busiest season ever by leaps and bounds in terms of missions flown as well as jumpers deployed you know in the old days the 20 000 hectare fire was a big fire and now on some of our larger fires 20 000 hectares is what it moves in a day they spend up to a week on the fire ground sometimes even longer each smoke jumper is strapped with more than 30 kilograms of p

ersonal gear lower ourselves rather correctly and connected their food and drinking water gets its own parachute it changes everything when you know that at the end of the day you're going to have a good meal we've done like sushi and homemade poutine on the line my specialty is I do like a baked brie and I just like roast some garlic and I add like dried tomatoes and rosemary in it look however difficult the day is if you sit down with the boys and you have a good steak at the end of the day it

's all worth it foreign with such a huge area and so many fires burning the best way to comprehend the scale of this emergency is up in the air [Music] we're hitching a ride with helicopter pilot West luck I covered in this area for three years [Music] it's the worst priority [Music] here at 800 Alpha everywhere you look you see smoke burnt out forest and Fire and the vast majority of them have been burning out of control and from up here you get a sense of what the fire Crews have been up again

st yesterday Flames ripped through here today conditions are relatively mild allowing ground Crews to start mopping up because in four days time that hot weather will return the winds will return and potentially this thing could blow out somewhere let's get a shot of these guys I love it my name is Devin Oaks 28 years old I've been fighting fire for the last eight seasons let's get a bladder site established hoax as he's known is in charge of the Princeton Sierras they're 20 stallions then they'

re always ready to gallop it's hard Labor's work and the mustaches I don't know what you're talking about [Music] here firefighting is mostly back-breaking work far from The Inferno even without raging flames danger is all around we have been having some tree strike incidents this year a ton of trees have been coming down the Sierras are on heightened alert the rebel stoked at noon for young wildland firefighter who died in the line of Devin Gayle the 19 year old killed by a falling tree last we

ek was the first death of a BC wild firefighter since 2015. [Music] I don't really know what to say like I'm not sure what would you say it's uh it's tough they're in the same shoes you're wearing they're out working towards the same goal you're working towards and really it's a big family even Beyond the 21 of us out here today and it uh it's really hard to remember your family like that to minimize risk dangerous trees are tagged then cut down before the others can come in with hoses foreign j

ust knock out all these hot spots cool everything down [Music] even after Heavy Rain fires here continue to burn Underground [Music] see you like uh where it's like the surface and how deep it goes that's what makes it like pretty challenging because it just burns so deep it burns a bit like a fuse down underground does it yeah if I find it smell it uh look for it so but can it kick off again absolutely again yeah it'll keep going once this is done it's not just go home and rest up it's come bac

k out here once we're reset and get back into another incident immediately there won't be a shortage for the rest of the summer foreign [Music] Cruise like the Sierras will continue to work these fires until the snow arrives reinforcements from across the globe can't stay much longer the El Nino weather pattern that's brought drought and Fire to the southern hemisphere years past is taking shape sometimes can be difficult to understand what climate change is unless you're living it we need to do

more when it comes to fighting climate change we need to do it faster and we also need to be better prepared to face the impacts of climate change because we have entered the era of climate of climate change and climate impacts this is something that we need to keep in our conscience and make sure that we're doing everything we should to be prepared for fire because it's something we need to learn to live with as the planet warms fire seasons are starting to overlap Australia's outlook for the

upcoming summer is causing concern there's already stuff starting to crack off back home so they'll definitely be fire that's uh you can guarantee that in Australia I know that we're going to have a bad fire season and we're hoping that we can call on the Canadians then and they can support us there's a lot of folks here in British Columbia that'll be putting their hands up to return that favor talk to you soon love you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]