Army reservists return from battling blazes

It was their first call to duty with the Canadian Armed Forces reserves and they already know what it’s like to receive a hero’s welcome.
Gunner Geoff Gerley and Bombardier Colin LeBlanc, of Unit #166 of the Independent Field Battery based out of Kenora, returned to Fort Frances last Thursday after spending more than two weeks fighting forest fires in Kelowna, B.C.
And they still were feeling the thrill of what it was like to join thousands of firefighters—provincial, privately-contracted, and military—who worked together to battle the blazes making the headlines.
“There were all these people greeting us when we arrived. It was amazing,” said LeBlanc, a 21-year-old who’s been in the reserves for three-and-a-half years.
“We were loved in Kelowna,” enthused Gerley, an 18-year-old who’s been in the reserves for about 18 months. “We didn’t want to leave.”
“There were hugs, people wanted autographs,” added LeBlanc. “We didn’t even have to pay when we went to get coffee at Tim Hortons.
“We even got the shake hands with the prime minister [Jean Chrétien],” he remarked.
Gerley and LeBlanc noted their employers—at Nor-Fab Building Components and the Habourage respectively—were very understanding in letting the two have the time off to fulfill their duty.
The two went to Kenora on Aug. 21, then on to Winnipeg on Aug. 22 with 10 other reservists from that unit. A total of 200 reservists flew out of Winnipeg for B.C. that day.
The following day (Aug. 23), they underwent a one-day firefighting course in Vernon, where they received certificates that indicate they’re qualified to fight forest fires anywhere in Canada, they noted.
Then they returned to Kelowna that day to camp out with modular tents and cots at a football field called the Apple Bowl on a hill. While there, they got to meet many new faces—as well as some familiar ones they hadn’t seen since their basic training.
But the assignment was by no means all applause, gifts, camaraderie, and free java as their duties were stretched over long hours in hellish conditions, where the human warmth is replaced with smoke and fire.
“They were long days. We were working 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.,” recalled LeBlanc.
“Unless we were on the night shift,” chimed in Gerley, noting it sometimes seemed like they never got sleep some days.
And as one can expect in the heart of an inferno, it was dangerous.
“We had trees falling around us,” said Gerley. “The fire burns out the root systems and the trees are just left standing there. They could fall any time.”
“We had one land 15 feet from us,” noted LeBlanc.
The pair also noted the devastation of homes was unlike anything they’d seen, noting the seeming randomness of the destruction was almost like that of a tornado.
“In one case, a house was gone and there was just stairs left standing,” said LeBlanc.
“You would see a house burnt down, and then right next to it a house that’s untouched. That’s how fast these fires can move through an area,” remarked Gerley, adding he’s aware some fires there were spreading as fast as 20 metres a minute.
The two noted the vast difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures in the mountain valley, the heat of the blazes, and the ashen air caused numerous firefighters there to get sick—even contracting pneumonia.
But not all the danger lay in the flames and smoke. Firefighters also had to remain wary of bears, rattlesnakes, and even elk, which were driven out of their homes by the fires—hungry, disoriented, and confused by the smoke.
Gerley noted he even was charged by one of the antlered beasts while he riding a four-wheeler. “And one woman in another platoon had a rattlesnake coil up and rattle right in front of her,” said LeBlanc.
But despite the long hours, intense heat, flames, smoke, weather, and wildlife, the two agreed it was a “great experience.”
“It’s not something everyone gets to do,” said LeBlanc.
“It’s experiences like this that make your basic training actually worth it,” chuckled Gerley.