Group calls for better pay and equipment for wildfire fighters
Global News
Firefighters and their victims are on Parliament Hill today to demand the federal government better support wildfire fighters, warning more will leave the job.
Last May, when Jenny Saulnier was home alone with her dog in Nova Scotia while her son and husband were at hockey, she scrolled through social media and saw there was a house fire some nine kilometres from her home, and was assured she would be fine.
“I was safe where I was. I had no reason to worry that this would ever turn into a wildfire, let alone the mega-force wildfire that it turned into,” she told reporters in Ottawa Wednesday morning.
Suddenly, she found herself racing for her life — until she was stopped in bumper-to-bumper traffic with a 911 operator saying she may need to leave by foot should the flames come closer to her.
“The Nova Scotia government let me down that day. Their lack of emergency readiness is something that I will never forget,” she said, recalling how her family’s possessions were burnt to a crisp, save for her son’s prized hockey medal that was recovered later.
“Climate change is here, and it’s fuelling the wildfires that threaten our homes, our families and our future. If we don’t act, this kind of devastation will happen again and again,” said Saulnier.
She and a group of firefighters and Indigenous Peoples are demanding the federal government better support Canada’s wildfire fighters, warning that without action, more of them will leave the job as fire seasons become longer and more intense.
Harold Larson, a former wildfire fighter and a veteran firefighter from Vancouver, said working to fight wildfires is gruelling, yet there is little reward to entice people to return year after year.
“They’re fighting an increasingly difficult battle to protect us,” he said.