Training camp begins for BC’s newest wildland firefighters

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The first group of new BC wildfire firefighters will finish boot camp this week, part of a record number of applicants hoping to work for the BC Wildfire Service ahead of fire season.

More than 2,000 people applied for jobs in the bushfire service between October and April, more than double the number last year, due in part to an improved recruitment process aimed at attracting applicants in rural and remote communities.

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Only 200 new wildfire fighters will make the cut.

Training camp involves “long days and a lot of physical work,” said Dustin Karolat, personnel development specialist.

To work as a wildland firefighter, applicants must pass an initial screening and perform well in an interview where they are evaluated on behavioral competencies and technical questions related to firefighting. The recruits with the highest scores are invited to boot camp, but before that, they must pass a timed fitness test that involves running a course carrying a backpack and equipment up a ramp.

“It’s complicated,” admitted Karolat.

About five percent of recruits fail the aptitude test the first time, and about half pass it on the second try.

At boot camp, the first of which will be held in Merritt this week, recruits learn field skills such as how to dig handguards, set up pumps and hoses, safety procedures and navigation. Every morning begins with fitness exercises and on the last day an exam is taken.

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After boot camp is over, recruits fill vacant positions across the province, and the rest of the 1,100 crew positions are typically filled by returning firefighters.

The process will continue over the next month, with three more training camps taking place in the coming weeks. Once assigned to a specific base, firefighters work Monday through Friday until fire activity begins and sets the agenda.

Last year, one of the worst fire seasons in the province’s history, the BC Wildfire Service employed 568 full-time permanent employees and 1,592 seasonal employees for a total of 2,160 people.

The bushfire service plans to add four new “initial attack” teams this year for a total of 162. The three- or four-person rapid response teams include paratroopers and helicopter crews. That’s in addition to 30 20 people. unit crews that specialize in sustained operations.

The BC Wildfire Service is evolving into a year-round service, with a 56 per cent increase in permanent full-time staff between 2021 and 2023.

Karolat, who lives in Smithers, used to teach math in the winter and fight fires in the summer. He now helps train crew leaders, as well as update training material for various teams.

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Karolat said he was feeling positive about crews protecting British Columbia’s communities and forests this summer, despite predictions that it will be another difficult fire season.

“There are a lot of people with experience and they have seen a lot of fire,” he said. “It was a bad year last year, and the year before that, and three years before that, so this is not foreign to us.”

New recruits should feel confident that they were hired because they are good candidates, he said. “They will do a good job.”

In recent years, the BC Wildfire Service has worked to encourage applicants in rural and remote communities, including a dedicated training and recruitment model for First Nations. A First Nations training camp is being offered at the Coastal Fire Center this year after a successful pilot at the Cariboo Fire Center last year.

“Learnings from the First Nations training camps will be adopted into the BC Wildfire Service’s core curriculum and will serve as a model for other First Nations interested in increasing their response capabilities,” a statement read. “In addition, the use of indigenous first response teams is expanding.”

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Earlier this year, British Columbia Premier David Eby said he was “deeply concerned” about the potentially terrible wildfire season ahead.

“We are in the most severe drought category in many different parts of the province, especially in the northeast,” he said. “We had a record number of fires under the snow in the province, about 100 fires in January that we haven’t seen before and we expect this to be a pretty terrible fire and drought season.”

According to the latest monthly snow survey, snowpack in British Columbia is about 63 per cent of the historical average for April, the lowest level since records began in 1970.

With files from Postmedia News

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