Local fire crews back home

Local Ministry of Natural Resources FireRangers have returned home after fighting forest fires in Western Canada.
“Basically when we got there, it was hot and dry and there was a large system moving in that was producing a lot of lightning and very little rain,” noted Josh Leatherdale, crew boss for one of the crews dispatched to Alberta back on July 2.
“They were expecting big things to happen and they really wanted to man up all the bases in case it hit the fan.
“It ended up the two fires eventually did take off and they had got to a pretty good size,” he added.
The crews sent to Alberta were first in Manning, just north of Peace River, where they put out a fire that was half-a-hectare in size.
The following day, they continued on to Worsley, where they fought a fire covering 202 hectares, before finally returning to Fort Frances on July 10.
A separate crew also was dispatched to an area near Uranium City in far northern Saskatchewan, which returned Saturday.
“It was nice to get to fight a fire. It was the first this year, it just happened to be in another province,” said Leatherdale. “We just went there and did our thing and put that fire out.”
“Our fire was all Ontario people after a couple of days, and they took all the Alberta crews out,” noted crew member Paul Poirier.
“It’s a little different in Alberta, it’s just a little learning curve,” Leatherdale added.
“I’m not knocking down Alberta but they’re doing things that are a little behind us,” said Jordan Botsford, another crew member.
“You can tell that Ontario’s very advanced in firefighting and very up to date on everything,” he added. “[A] really high-calibre agency, a very safe agency, and it just makes you really appreciate a lot.”