NS firefighters return from battling Ontario blaze
Posted Jul 22, 2019 09:36:05 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A crew of firefighters from Nova Scotia are back at home after two weeks battling a forest fire in northern Ontario.
The 21 member crew was helping fight a fire called Red 39 – that fire is still going, and according to Ontario's Fire Monitoring Service currently sits at 44,000 hectares.
Crew leader Cody Wilkins says his group was an experienced one, so they knew what to expect going in.
“I think everything went pretty smoothly, everyone's usually pretty glad to be back after two weeks, it's a pretty long two weeks when you're in the bush,” explains Wilkins.
He says there's a limit of 14 days when crews are sent to another province to help fight fires, adding another team could be sent back out any day.
Crew member Robert Davis was asked why he keeps fighting forest fires.
“I don't know, it's just that smell of the woods, the smoke, it's in your blood I guess,” says Davis.
He says rain helped the crews battle the blaze for which they were responsible.
“In this one here, we got there and it was really hot, and very active fire, and then, anyway, we couldn't get in, but a whole bunch of rain came, we could get in, and yeah, Mother Nature helped us with this one,” says Davis.
So far there's been no official request for additional assistance from Ontario.
