[thunder clapping]
[distant howling]
[thunder clapping]
[thunder rolling]
- [cracking]
- [flames whooshing]
[flames crackling and sizzling]
[Dora Alexis] What would
the world be without fire?
The sun, the stars, the moon...
all fire.
Volcanoes... fire.
Fire all around.
[flames crackling]
Oh... sneaky coyote.
He's like fire,
he comes and goes.
You'll see, in the distance,
you'll see the smoke...
suddenly,
there's the flames...
lickin' at your heels.
[coyote panting]
He's there
when you least expect him.
[birds chirping]
[frogs croaking]
[cawing]
[helicopter rotors beating]
[Jeremy Neufeld] I'm similar,
in some ways, to fire.
[cawing]
It can be pretty intense
at times.
Rap KILO, it's Rap Base.
I get the phone call,
and it's, like,
"Okay, we need to be
on our way in 30 minutes."
You don't know much
until you get into
the helicopter.
- [flames roaring]
- [rotors beating]
[dispatch] X-ray, runway 3-0.
[Jeremy]
We're the first ones there.
We can get into these remote,
usually mountainous,
steep locations,
because we can just hover
right above it,
propel in,
and get right next to the fire.
I'm very hyper focused
on what I do,
to the point where you're
not really noticing the noise
and the fact
that you're hovering
200 feet off the ground.
[tense drumbeat pulsing]
I don't like heights,
and yet,
I rappel from helicopters...
[rotors beating]
and that's all credit
to training that allows you
to almost forget
that you have that fear.
[rotors beating]
Each type of fire is different.
You'll have a smaller fire
that's creeping along,
this more intense fire
that's burning out of control.
In my mind, like,
I just see a flaming bear.
[roaring]
[Jaclyn Moore]
A big grizzly bear,
just running...
running to survive.
That's what a fire does,
is it needs all the fuel
to keep going,
from the forest.
Big bear... just runnin'.
[phone ringing]
You kinda live
on the edge of your seat.
You don't make plans.
Good morning, Rider Ventures.
Jackie speaking.
And you need five people?
Probably 14 days.
Everything revolves around fire.
My husband and I own
the company Rider Ventures.
He's the dreamer,
I'm the realist.
He's the branches on the tree,
and I'm the roots.
[engine chugs to life]
[Craig Moore]
I'm from Okanagan Indian Band.
Been firefighting
pretty much my whole life.
[revving engine]
I love fire.
It's dangerous.
It's very powerful.
More powerful
than what people think.
It, at times, can be a beast.
It could be the dancing devil
or dancing warrior.
It could be your worst enemy.
But it's the respect
that you have to have
of what that beast
is capable to do.
If you don't have
the respect for that,
it'll beat you.
[Denise Jervah]
It's so beautiful,
yet so destructive...
how it can just be
so many different colours,
and it... just how
it dances with itself,
or it dances with the wind,
and how it carries itself
so gracefully across.
I can find myself
just looking in awe
and just staring into it.
[John Horgan]
The climate crisis
is not a fiction.
It is absolutely real,
and if you look...
I've had a briefing
from the Wildfire Service
yesterday,
and again today,
the entire West Coast
of North America,
from Baja to Alaska, is red-hot.
It is a global challenge,
and we all need to have
citizens of the world
coming together.
[Denise] I always
looked up to firefighters.
I thought, like,
they had the coolest job.
Rider Ventures actually
came out to my small hometown,
and they were offering training
to be a wildfire firefighter,
so I jumped on that opportunity.
We have a two-hour period
to have everything ready
to be on base
and have everything
in the trucks
and getting ready to go out.
I cover my bases
with all of my loved ones,
just making sure
I say everything I need to say.
Not like I'm worried
about the worst,
but...
things happen
in a blink of an eye.
My mom's a worrier,
so she does not watch the news
during fire season.
[osprey chirping]
[osprey calling out]
[river rushing below]
[Tiffany Wilson]
My name is Yiwitkam,
which means the sounds
of the water and the rapids...
making its way
through the small rapids.
My English name's Tiffany.
I live in God's country...
in the Naswhito Creek
area of Vernon,
on the Okanagan
Indian Band Reserve.
I have three children.
[Kara Marchand]
My Okanagan name is Sup,
and my English name is Kara.
I like spending time
with animals.
[hooves pounding]
- Come on.
- [man whistles]
[exhales]
We all thought the fire
wasn't gonna come so close...
but we still had, like,
our cows on the range,
so I was really worried
about them.
[howling]
[crickets chirping]
[Craig] Your FFCs are 90.2.
Rate of spread
is eight metres per minute...
so fire could spread
pretty fast for you guys.
Hazards down there,
what we wanna be
paying attention to are...
wildlife...
danger trees, right?
What kind of machinery's
on-site?
[Craig] Uh, they got
some helicopters, 212s,
and also there was
air tankers on there,
plus we got
some dozers too. Okay?
It's the winds down there, guys,
that we also wanna pay attention
to, the southwest winds.
Let's head out
and get your trucks packed.
We need that.
Will you back
the truck up properly, please?
- Absolutely!
- Okay.
[Denise]
Once you get around your crew,
that's when you calm down,
and when you get your crew,
once you get your orders,
that's when, like,
"Okay, like, it's time
to get down to business,"
and, yeah, you can
mentally prepare
for what
the work's gonna look like,
relying on your crew
to keep you grounded.
You got everything
you want, Vern?
[flames crackling]
Watch the chatter
on the radio, and...
let's do this.
[Denise] You have to be
accountable for each other.
If something happens to me,
I know that this person
has my back.
We are each other's lifelines.
[flames roaring]
[radio crackles indistinctly]
[chopping]
[water splashing]
[Denise] There was a time
where there was a tree
burning through the centre
that no one saw,
and I was looking
down at my crew lead,
who was falling
another danger tree.
[cracking and creaking]
And behind me,
my coworker yelled my name.
I looked up at the tree,
and the tree
was falling towards me.
[creaking]
[thudding]
I just dove into the black.
[firefighter panting]
[Michelle Maisonneuve] We were
always watching the fire,
keeping an eye on it.
Oh...
yum.
I've lived
in Monte Lake on and off
for the last, probably,
like, ten or so years,
'cause the house
was paid off, we were...
we were just enjoying ourselves,
where we didn't have to stress
and get up, get ready,
and go to work,
get up,
get ready, and go to work.
Yeah, I was enjoying that,
just in the morning
or something,
doing a little beading.
I always pop down
to the food truck and say hi
to Kate and Brian, who...
I've known Kate for many years.
Have coffee down there,
and then, we talked about it.
"What do you think?
Do you think
we have a need to worry?"
I was, like, "Okay,"
Talking to Robert,
"What's our backup plan?"
And he was like, "There's no...
We're gonna stay and fight!
It's not gonna happen.
If anything... look what we got.
We're gonna... we can fight it."
We had a gas water pump
ready to go.
We had a tanker
in the back of the truck.
We have our creek down below,
and we had
another cistern up top, to use.
[Rachel Casponi] It felt like
we lived with that fire
for months.
The air quality
in British Columbia was so poor,
and the evacuation orders
were stretching on.
[school bell ringing]
We were on alert
for a long time.
[bell ringing]
I was down at the lake,
and it was kinda the first time
I'd seen the fire
crest the hill,
and I remember thinking,
"They look small,
and they look farther away
than I thought."
But, of course,
that was just the first glimpse,
and what I didn't see
was behind that ridge.
And I remember thinking,
"I think we're gonna be okay.
I feel like
we'll make it through."
I was feeling so calm
that I was, like,
"I'm gonna take
a spin by the school."
Like, "Everything feels
like it's okay."
There were fire crews
from all over.
The Chief of Operations said,
"We have weather coming in.
Make sure you're ready."
And then,
when the wind kicked up,
I just remember thinking,
"Oh, here we go."
[osprey crying]
[William Wilson]
I woke up, and I looked,
and I couldn't see anything.
The ruddy smoke was so thick.
[Tiffany] I never
actually really thought
the fire was gonna come.
A lot of our people out here
wanted to stay...
especially the older people,
like my papa.
[William]
I didn't want to go.
I thought I could stay here
and fight the fire,
save my house.
[Tiffany]
I was really scared,
'cause besides my kids,
he's, like,
the only thing that I have.
I've kinda taken on the role
of being here for him
since my granny passed away.
I was crying,
begging him to leave.
Told him to quit being stubborn,
and told him that the house
isn't as important as he was.
He told us all to go.
He got mad
at probably all of us.
[helicopter rotors beating]
[helicopters passing over]
[Robert Hugh]
The White Rock Lake fire
was aimed right at us.
You could just tell
the burn patterns,
where it's going.
Being an ex-camera guy,
I videotape everything.
We kicked it up a notch,
and got better sprinklers,
and then just got prepared.
We tried to fill up our pools.
[splashing]
Our closest neighbour
is four kilometres away from us.
[crickets chirping]
[Michelle] We're way
far out from everybody else.
[siren wailing]
The way that it ripped
through this valley...
this fire is like
a ten-headed snake.
[rotors beating]
[Robert] When the fire
started coming through,
it took out the power lines.
Two different neighbours said,
you know, "Get out."
[water thundering down]
[radio reporter]
It's very bad here.
Officials are calling it
"horrifying and heartbreaking"
Thousands of people
have been forced
to flee their homes.
In fact, early this morning,
another 600 property owners
in the Okanagan
were told to go home,
to get their belongings,
and that they have until 1:00
this afternoon to get out.
[Kara] We got evacuated,
and we were packing up
as many family pictures,
and my grandma's ashes.
[Tiffany] I told probably
almost all my family
to call my grandpa,
'cause I couldn't
talk him into leaving.
And then, finally,
somebody talked him into it.
[flames raging]
My car was already packed,
because I learned
that that's really important,
to just have everything ready.
So I began catching animals
and checking in with neighbours
to see when they were leaving,
or if they were leaving,
and I just kinda
sat on my porch,
and took a breath, and said,
"I think I just need to go."
[fire bells clanging]
Midnight, there was
banging on the door.
- [thumping]
- "What?"
"Evacuation order.
Are you leaving now?"
And I said, "Well, no,
not right at this moment."
She told me,
"Well, make sure your family
knows where
your dental records are
and who your dentist is
so they can
identify your remains."
[distorted siren whines]
I remember at some point,
hearing probably
one of the fire trucks
go into the trailer park
beside us.
"Everybody needs to leave now!"
Woop, woop!
[distant fire bell clangs]
[sirens whining in distance]
[roaring]
[Denise] The wind is like
the mastermind behind the fire.
It controls everything...
and it could just take the fire,
and it just runs...
so you could
be fighting it from one end,
and all of a sudden,
in a snap of your fingers...
the wind could change,
and now it's running in
the complete opposite direction
it was going in.
It's scary.
You look hell in the face
some days.
You see some things
that would scar most people.
[fire whooshing]
[Craig]
I take five to ten minutes
just to watch
what the fire wants to do.
I do that quite a bit,
is I study fire.
It's just taught me
over the years,
you have to be very patient.
You can't be frustrated
about it,
because then it'll beat you up
and spit you out.
[flames thundering]
Topography and fuel,
those are the things
that we really pay attention to
and watch.
When we are working on a fire,
we have to have
our escape routes.
Go into a safe zone
that's able to protect us
from the fire.
If we pay attention
to all these elements,
then we're being able
to come home safe.
Last thing we want
is to make
that phone call to a parent.
Nobody wants that call.
Trees...
they regrow, they replace.
Lives don't, right?
[Jeremy] Our job is to go
out there and put out the fire,
but not
at the risk to ourselves,
and there's times
when we just don't actually
have to fight
certain parts of the fire,
because it's too unsafe
to do so.
"There's nothing that we can do.
Let's just step back from this."
Which is hard for firefighters,
but they learn to accept that...
and so there's
that element of surrender.
[Robert] All those firefighters
that were here for weeks,
they all evacuated.
Can't blame 'em for that,
'cause it's a Rank-6 fire,
and no one's gonna
get in front of that.
There's just flames everywhere.
Most of us evacuated.
There was, I think,
three people that stayed behind
in their homes
to fight the fire,
and everyone else
basically left.
[thunderous whooshing
and crackling]
The flames that were, uh,
candling in those trees,
I mean, they-they were massive.
I mean, we were pretty far away,
I've got a pretty good zoom
on my camera,
and you could still
feel the heat.
Just radiant heat coming at ya.
Incandescent.
Fire is
a living, breathing animal.
It breathes,
it spreads, consumes...
it's almost alive.
[howling and roaring]
[Michelle] It was
a rumbling coming towards us.
That's not a train.
Wind, smoke, heat,
and I was grabbing,
like, the cats
and whatever I could.
[cats meowing]
I couldn't see,
'cause everything's blowing.
[car engine sputtering]
[flames roar]
[car engine starts and revs]
And then, both me
and Robert are in the car,
and we didn't even
have to say anything.
Mentally, we were like,
"That's it, we're out."
[Tiffany] It was just all red.
It kinda seemed like
the whole reserve was gone.
[roaring]
[William] I'd call it a pig.
It devours everything.
[Tiffany]
It's like a huge roar,
a lion roaring,
or-or some...
somebody, like, screaming,
or an animal,
and the spit, just raw.
And it was just...
[whistles] ..."Wow."
She was like a hellfire,
just coming through,
and just taking out everything.
[William] Everything went.
All my tools and everything.
[glass shattering]
[Tiffany]
I had a turtle collection
my granny started for me
when I was, like, a little girl.
That got left.
I had a collection
of beaded medallions,
and I lost all those.
My car.
[William] Saddles...
I didn't even have
a pair of riding boots.
[fire rumbling and growling]
[Kara]
The one thing we left behind
that I really wish we didn't
were my cows.
We lost about 15 cows.
All I could think about
was how scary
it would have been for them.
[structure groaning,
debris thudding]
[fire thundering]
[Michelle] I'd been
collecting, uh, pine pollen.
I love being out in the trees,
and I could just...
you collect all the pollen,
and it's just beautiful.
I actually had it all bottled.
Fire came,
and it took the whole house.
There's not many trees
around here left.
[Mike Farnworth]
I would like to speak
directly to those who think
they know more than the experts.
Last night,
firefighters
with the BC Wildfire Service
once again
put their lives on the line
to help evacuate people
who chose to ignore
evacuation orders.
This is completely unacceptable.
No property
is worth risking lives.
[David Newcomb] We got
in trouble from Farnworth,
who said we're idiots
for coming back in,
but we had no choice.
Now, this is neighbours
helping neighbours.
We've put out fires,
you know, around us before.
We thought we'd just see
how far we could make it,
and I'm glad we tried.
[embers sizzling and hissing]
We just put
a thousand litres on it.
Looking better.
Put a bit of dish soap in it
to make it foam up
and stay a little longer
and stick to things.
It seems like it's working.
Probably saved
about eight houses from burning.
People go, "Why do you
live in a fire zone?"
The whole province
is basically a fire zone.
If you're living
in a rural place,
don't count on anyone coming.
You know,
get prepared before it comes.
[softly] Hi.
Come on, come here.
You want some food?
No? You don't like food?
Come on.
[Tiffany] It was, like,
three or four days
after the house was gone
that we could come out.
Everything was gone.
[Kayden Marchand] The entire
house was burnt down,
nothing left
but the ash
and what remained of it.
[Tiffany] We found
a couple little trinkets...
and I found
all my beaded medallions
all melted together.
I didn't cry, though.
I di... I didn't...
I didn't cry.
I grew up with my grandfather,
who always had
a "cowboy up" attitude.
When we went out there that day,
I knew I needed to be strong
for my family.
Kayden cried.
Not just a cry,
but he howled-cried...
because of the devastation
of the forest.
He couldn't believe
that it was all gone.
Sad for people.
Sad for the Earth.
Sad for his papa,
'cause his papa's house
was gone.
[Kayden]
All the trees were black...
and the ground
was also burnt.
[William]
Pretty tough to come home
and find everything
you've worked for all your life
gone up in smoke,
and there was
no bringing it back.
We had no insurance, nothing.
[Anita Jacobsen]
From the very first moment
that you're evacuated,
there's a period
of just not knowing
if your house is still standing.
And then it started to change
as you figured out, yeah,
your house is okay.
It was hard to hear people say,
"You have no idea
how lucky you are."
"You have no idea
how close you came."
[sobs] There's something
about survivor's guilt,
and I haven't...
ever... talked about it,
because I don't feel
I have a place to talk about it.
I don't think
I gave myself permission
to really process
how I feel different.
[news reporter] This summer,
when the White Rock Lake
Wildfire
burned into the Okanagan
Indian Band's main reserve,
Dora Alexis,
then all the other residents,
were forced to evacuate.
Each spring, the Syilx elder
has been conducting
planned burns
to clear out debris
and prevent raging wildfires
on her family's property.
[birds singing]
[to birds]
Hey, guys, where are you?
[Dora] I come home,
and I was glad to see
that our place
was still standing.
Felt very thankful and grateful
that it was still there.
When you hear about
other places being burnt out,
that was one scary, scary thing.
[chimes tinkling softly]
How could it burn so many homes?
But then, you have to know
that the place wasn't
previously taken care of
and burnt down.
[quiet buzzing]
[buzzing]
Well, they're doing
pretty good, them.
Quite busy.
[school bell ringing]
[Rachel]
Now it's about what is next.
As a teacher,
I had to care for the needs
of my students,
and we had a number of people
that were homeless,
and parents
that were devastated.
I couldn't be there
and put out spot fires,
I don't have that skill,
but I knew that I could
take care of their kids
so that they could
start cleaning up
and start assessing damages,
and I knew that I could
take care of our community
in that way...
and just try to be a force
for compassion and care,
and lift everything,
as much as I could,
off of the kids...
And just deal
with the added stresses...
people living
in temporary houses,
and the stress at home.
Trauma, PTSD.
[clock ticking]
The thread throughout
the entire
social studies curriculum
is "connection to community,"
and any time we were exploring
any of that,
it was just... flames.
"What do you think
of your community right now?"
It's, "Fire. Fire. Fire."
[pages rustling]
I took pictures
of a lot of the keystone
buildings around town,
and we've been drawing them
and sketching them...
the things
that didn't change in the fire,
like the hall,
it still looks the same,
and so I would
find a picture of that,
and we'd sketch it.
[gentle breeze blowing]
[osprey calling]
[osprey calling]
[calling]
[Rachel] I'm a water person,
and when you're right out
in the middle of that water,
it's like being
in a cathedral of... fire.
It's all you see.
It burned around the whole lake.
The reflection of the lake
has changed colour,
so even the colour of the lake
looks different to me.
I had the sense
that many people
in the community have,
that they've lost their forest.
They know these hills
and these forests
as they do family members.
I remember feeling
called to just listen.
Just sit and listen.
And nothing sounded the same.
The wind didn't sound the same.
There was an eeriness to it...
none of the rustling...
because there was no foliage.
As I was walking
those first couple of times,
I could hear screaming.
Not people screaming,
but I could hear the landscape.
I could hear
the wailing of sounds
and popping trees
and boiling sap...
I could hear it,
even though it wasn't there.
The forest was hurting.
Once winter came,
the sound changed,
and I didn't hear it anymore.
'Cause snow changes sound
and snow changes colour.
More gauzy and more protected
in the world around you...
and that makes me
feel very safe.
[a light wind blows]
[exhaling deeply]
[young beavers crying]
[crying]
[Michelle] We didn't have
insurance on our place.
We probably couldn't
have got insurance.
We were living in a hotel.
Emergency services
put it up there.
I kept asking Red Cross,
"Do you have any resources?
Who shall I call
to ask the right questions?"
Nothing. Nothing.
[panting]
[birds singing]
[buzzing]
[Craig] The soil's burnt clean.
It's comin' in nice and green.
[crickets chirping]
You see all the holes?
That's showing us
that the wildlife
is coming back,
the woodpeckers.
[sniffing]
[distant woodpecker hammering]
[Vern Clemah]
Some of the plants in here
are growing back pretty good.
[Craig] Some of the old berries
and stuff, oh, yeah.
There's a sister berry
right there, too.
[Vern] Thing about stuff
like this, too, like fires,
you'll have stuff come back
that hasn't been here
for a while, so...
- For years.
- For years, right? So...
[Craig] Definitely,
that's what fire does, right?
It brings back
all those kind of stuff.
[crickets chirping]
[Kara] Just, like, seeing
how the Earth comes back...
[stream rushing]
that's been probably
the best out of the fire.
A lot has changed
just in this little bit of time.
Definitely see things different.
To not take things for granted.
[Tiffany] We're all back
on the property now,
which is nice.
Everybody likes it.
The band said
that whoever lost a house,
it was gonna get replaced.
They talked about
these temporary homes.
We don't like the small spaces,
but we're just all glad
to be back together,
and then my papa will
be getting a house,
and hopefully soon.
'Cause he's gonna be
82 this year,
and it'd be nice
for him to be in a house.
Are you just gonna be home?
Yeah, I'll be around.
[William] We stayed
eight months in a hotel.
I'm back home.
I'm back on my land,
and the house
that they're gonna build for me
looks pretty good.
[Vern] It's a pretty stressful
year for a lot of people,
all the fires that happened.
Let's just hope
next year isn't as bad.
You guys ready?
[Craig] Over the years,
we've started to see
the intensity
of the fires change.
Right here?
[Craig] So our training
has to constantly change
to be able to adapt
to these fires.
- Is there bug spray?
- There is bug spray.
[Craig]
What I really love about my job
is taking the years
of experience that I've had
and being able to pass that on
to our younger generation.
We gotta be ready
for the fire line.
Fire season's coming.
[Craig] We can't be there
24/7 with them,
holding their hands.
They've gotta also
blossom on the land, too.
Everybody has a work ethic
in their life,
and it's just learning how
to pull that
out of each individual.
I think that's
my biggest drive now,
being there for them.
I didn't have that so much
when I was growing up.
"Hey, I'm struggling
with this."
"Okay. Well, let's teach you."
[Kevin Dalgarn] Assess your area
that you're working at.
Always assess your site.
What's our hazards here, guys?
- Danger trees?
- Danger trees. What else?
Overhead.
[Craig] They're like our kids.
We're proud of 'em.
We get frustrated with 'em.
We love 'em.
We wanna see them home
all the time.
[Jaclyn]
We both feel very strongly
about the people
that work for us.
The big joke,
they call us "Mom and Dad,"
and that's kinda what we are.
[Kevin] The fire's coming,
obviously, if I was taking
this building for real,
that balcony over here
would be...
[Tiffany] I have a new job.
[Kevin] Maybe you wanna be
able to access to that point...
[Tiffany] Since I
started at Rider Ventures,
I've got a variety
of tickets now.
I have my Structure Protection,
which was really interesting.
Good.
[instructor] We're gonna look
at this building and say,
"Hey, fire's coming from here.
We need to get a sprinkler up
as quick as possible."
[Tiffany] I wanted to learn
more about structure protection
because our house
didn't have it.
If we were told
how to fire-smart
our home and our property,
then we probably
could have done that,
so that it could get
sprinklers put on it.
Then I don't think anybody
would have lost their homes.
[Craig]
We need to educate more.
Educating people on
"What can you do
to protect your house?"
Our Indigenous ancestors,
they were pretty savvy
with fire-smart.
[Xwestkin]
Fire is one of our tools
that our people have always used
since they've been here.
We have ceremonies
before we go out
and we light fires.
Fire, used properly,
it creates life.
We work with nature
when we do
our traditional burns.
We're born with a responsibility
to look after our temulaxw,
our territory, our land,
'cause it keeps us alive.
[James Pepper]
When the settlers came here,
there was this incredibly
flourishing ecosystem,
plants and animals,
and everything was just,
you know, absolutely incredible,
but that was a managed landscape
they arrived to.
The different pine ecosystems
that we have here
are fire-dependent ecosystems.
In fact, some of the seed cones
won't even open
unless they are exposed to fire.
[Tim Lezard] For the last
seven, ten generations,
our people weren't allowed
to practice
our culture of burning.
They don't consider
that having a fire is good.
We need to undo that.
Suppressing fires
got us to where we are now.
[Xwestkin] Look at last year.
It was monster-big fires
burning up the territory,
the land, all over.
It was pretty unreal,
because of the amount of fuel
that was left out there
and not burnt, not managed,
and not looked after.
[Dora] The whole reserve
was getting thick.
Nobody was doing anything.
We began to burn every spring.
You have to work with fire.
Burn the grasses
and stuff close to the house.
If the fire comes down,
then there's no fuel,
so it just peters out, eh?
It was taught to us
by our elders.
We learned from them
how to control that fire,
how to work with it.
[Fred Louis] You only have
a short window in the spring
to do this, eh?
Just when the snow goes away,
and a few days after,
that grass and stuff dries up.
It acts as a spacing
for the forest,
so it don't get too thick.
[Dora] It is a cultural thing.
They had to know how
to protect themselves from fire.
[Dora] Control burn...
just as a little fire.
It's not a big fire,
and it can go
and clean up the place
without damaging the trees
or even the grass.
A big fire tills the soil.
Okay, we just about got it done.
[Xwestkin]
We all have spirits.
All creation have spirits.
Fire has a spirit
like everything else.
And the more you feed it,
the more monstrous it gets.
[John Sawatzky] Fire's one of
the most destructive disasters
that we can face.
An insatiably hungry beast...
that can never find
enough food to eat.
And without intervention...
it'll just keep going.
All you have left is ashes.
Nothing was being done here.
No one was responding here.
They felt
completely abandoned...
forgotten.
So often,
you go into disaster sites,
and the biggest obstacle
is that the people
have no more hope left
that they can get out of
their post-disaster situation.
We go when we're asked
to come in
and help with disaster response.
There is no cost.
There's no way we can handle
two Paiges in the same room.
[John] Volunteers come from
all different backgrounds.
Welcome to your new home!
[John] They're certainly
not all Mennonites.
They're all people
that just want
to give their time
to help rebuild.
There you go.
But we get involved in
with the ones
that have no insurance,
and those that
were horribly underinsured
and didn't get enough back
to build a house.
These families
lost everything in a fire.
They don't have the means
to rebuild on their own.
Our biggest aspect of our work
is to help people
restore their hope.
[hammering]
[sawing]
[Michelle]
So glad we have some trees.
They asked us, "Would you
like us to build you a house?"
- Oh!
- Incredible.
[Michelle]
We said, "Yes! Yes, please?"
It was just mind-blowing
that somebody would...
[voice breaks]
do that.
[crickets chirping]
[tires rumbling]
[pop music playing]
My name is Yenny Peralta.
I'm from Mexico.
I have been here for one year,
and I start to work
in this tiki bar.
It was really fun.
The families love to be here,
to enjoy the food,
drinks, the music.
[speaking in Spanish]
[male reporter]
A summer of fire
has whipped around the world.
Entire towns have been
wiped off the map.
No matter where
the flames are burning,
there are common themes.
Scientists are unequivocal
that human-made climate chang
is to blame.
The rising temperatures
and ensuing drought
will create
more extreme fire danger
in the coming decades.
[crickets chirping]
Hi.
[snorting agreeably]
[Crystal Findlay]
Living in the Okanagan,
we're no stranger to fires.
Jeff and I have been
holding our breath,
because we knew that
most of Canada was on fire.
We run a trail-riding business.
Oh, I know.
Mwah!
[chuffing]
[Crystal] Horses are
very spiritual creatures.
They are very sensitive
to your emotions.
A lot of times,
rescue animals...
they need rescuing,
but we need rescuing,
and we rescue each other
together.
[light breeze whistling]
[Craig]
How do we describe this summer?
Winds. Dryness.
We're getting
those catastrophic events.
[wind gusting]
[Tiffany]
The climate... changed.
The danger became
very apparent to everybody.
[zipping bag]
There's been more fires
this year than any other year.
I want to get out there.
It's hard to actually
mentally prepare yourself.
My son had a really hard time.
He was crying.
But it's a job
that I signed up for.
I just had to talk to him
and tell him
that I was gonna be okay.
[crackling and sizzling]
[Bowinn Ma] We know
we're on the front lines
of climate change history
right now,
facing a fire season
that is
one of the most challenging
we've ever experienced.
Our crews and partners
are fighting wildfires
that are aggressive,
and in many cases,
fast-moving and unpredictable.
[Graheme Wilson] Wildfire
is part of the ecology...
Mother Nature's way
of cleaning up the garden.
Lightning-caused fires
are natural.
What's not natural
is destruction of the forest
and all the carbon
it's releasing into the air.
There's more extreme
fire behaviour.
[light thudding]
I think fire's made me
a better person.
[indistinct chatter]
It's made me who I am today.
[Graheme] The biggest
lesson it's taught me
is to be careful,
because there is an element
of risk in what I'm doing,
and even
for a ground firefighter,
they're putting themselves
in harm's way,
and I can fly away,
but I can also get clawed
by the angry bear.
[Tiffany] I had to carry
my chainsaw up the little hill,
and I was dying.
And I was, like,
"Screw this, I'm done!
I'm not doing this!
I'm going home!"
And no, a couple of my crewmates
were, like,
"Tiff, come on!
You can do this."
Everyone, like,
really helps each other out.
[fire crackling]
[Craig] You have to be
willing to go all day.
You have to get used
to a lot of obstacles.
There's so much
that is against you.
You could be walking
through areas
that are so smoky, you can't
barely even see the ground,
so you have to be able
to manage with that smoke
without falling over,
or getting lost,
or something, right?
That's why being able
to understand fires...
they're kinda like
a raging bull.
[splashing]
[female reporter]
A firefighter
has been k*lled
in the line of duty.
The firefighter
is a woman who died
on the front lines,
while on the job
fighting a wildfire.
[Tiffany] You have the grief,
the anger, the sadness.
"Why did this happen?
How did it happen?"
[Denise]
For the first little while,
they didn't disclose
any information or any names.
They were just, like,
"This was a fatality."
I had a lot of people
messaging me.
My aunt called me
at 4:00 in the morning
after she just heard the news.
It just immediately
reminded a lot of people
that, like, "Hey, Denise
could be out there."
During my entire
wildfire career,
I have not heard of a fatality.
She was only 19.
A danger tree came down.
That could have been me.
It hit my mom really hard.
She tried to convince me
to stop being
a wildland firefighter.
[crickets chirping]
[yipping]
[howling]
[thunder crashing]
[howling]
[thunder rumbling]
[Tiffany]
Today was a very long day.
We got a lot of miles covered.
I was able to talk to Kara,
Kayden, and Gramps tonight.
I sure miss them.
[deafening crack]
[thunder rolling]
[whooshing]
[Crystal]
I couldn't sleep.
I started having
nightmares about fire.
Next morning,
I got up, and, of course,
we had trail rides
booked for the morning.
I came back from the ride,
and Jeff says,
"Crystal, this is serious."
[horse whinnying]
[flames rumbling]
[Jason Brolund] The fire
started behind our community
in the early evening,
but it became clear by midday
that the fire
was going to threaten town,
and that we had really
only that daylight period
to do what we could
to get people out of the way.
[sirens wailing in distance]
[David Eby]
In just the last hour,
we've gone from about
4,500 homes under evacuation
to about 15,000 homes. Families.
[sirens wailing]
We have tens of thousands
more on evacuation alert.
We are declaring
a provincial state of emergen.
[Jason]
It was all hands on deck
for every fire department
nearby,
and from a long ways away,
to rush here and help us.
[helicopters approaching]
[sirens wailing]
[Jason] We were asking
thousands of people
to get out of the way,
and in the case of me
and most of my team,
these were our houses
that were under threat.
These were our families
who were evacuating.
[Jaclyn] I went in the office
just to catch up
on some paperwork.
We've just expanded so much
that we outgrew
our little home office.
And I started seeing
all the news reports
about the wind picking up.
I remember feeling this panic,
because it was so close
to our home.
Should we start packing stuff
just to be prepared?
'Cause it's sad to say,
we're in the industry,
but we're probably
not prepared ourselves,
'cause we think about
the office, the crews...
but then, we don't think about
us, ourselves, our home.
[engine humming]
[snorting]
[braying]
[Anne Farnan] What we do
is rescue animals in wildfires.
We'll take our collars,
and we'll go get them.
I'm a volunteer
for the Animal Lifeline
Emergency Response Team.
[whinnying]
This one's baiting me
into a tug-of-w*r.
[Anne]
You have to be really careful
when you're trying
to get them out,
'cause they want
to go back to their home,
and they're scared.
[whinnying loudly]
I know. I heard you.
Here, come with your bud.
[chuffing and neighing]
[snorting]
Come on, guys. Come on, guys.
[Anne]
It's such gratifying work
to know
that you can help somebody
when their life has been
thrown into absolute chaos.
[Jeff Findlay] Not good.
Just got the goats moved now.
We just got 20 horses out.
I've never been so empty here.
Hey, say goodbye to our house.
[blows kiss]
[Jeff]
That's what it looked like.
God bless you...
pilots, fire department.
If you can save our place,
that will be truly amazing.
Woo...
[Yenny] I can see
the mountains on fire.
[speaking in Spanish]
[speaking in Spanish]
[multiple sirens wailing]
[flames thundering]
[Jason] Firefighters
could work for an entire career
and never see
the amount of fire
and destruction
that our firefighters saw.
The wind was blowing
strong enough
to pull objects
out of your hand.
The smell of fire
and burning was around you,
and it was hot, very hot,
like the wind
was coming out of your furnace,
and it was the sound
of, like, a river rushing.
Just kind of hit all of
your senses at the same time.
It was a sense of amazement.
There's also a sense of wonder.
Like, "How could this
be happening to us?"
We were saving lives
and saving neighbourhoods
one house at a time.
It was like
fighting a hundred years of fire
all in one night.
I really feared
that not everybody
we'd asked to leave
had listened.
[Jeff] That's the viewpoint
from Bear Creek Park.
It's on fire.
This is the orchard.
It's completely engulfed.
That is the upper end
of Bear Creek.
If there's any houses
left up here,
I'd be amazed.
And our home is right there...
which means it's burning
to the ground right now.
I can't believe
this is happening.
[Crystal] My husband
has put his heart and soul
into this property.
He was standing at our barn
nine minutes
before the fire was on the road
that would've blocked him in.
Jeff finally arrived
at the emergency centre,
and he said...
"Our house is gone.
Everything is gone.
We've lost everything."
Watching everything burn
on the hillside,
and just knowing
that that was my life...
You're helpless.
There's nothing you can do.
That's my home.
And then the fear of,
"How far is this fire gonna go?"
And you're watching
your whole city on fire,
and people panicking,
and the smoke is so intense.
Nobody felt safe.
It was just completely surreal.
It's that single moment
that alters your life
and your path forever.
Fire does have its own life,
its own spirit,
but fire doesn't have
the kind of human emotions
that we have.
It's not purposely
trying to destroy lives.
It's simply doing its job.
It's just a force
that comes through,
ravages and destroys,
and then it's just done.
[flame crackling and roaring]
It has its own power.
It creates its own weather.
It's its own universe.
[sirens wailing]
[silence falls]
[Jason]
That first morning,
about 5:00 a.m.,
I'm asking myself,
"How many lives
have we lost here?"
I knew it was
really, really bad,
but we just didn't know numbers.
Despite my darkest fears,
there were no lives lost.
We lost close to
a hundred homes.
What remains
is thousands of homes
that were saved...
and it's because
systems were in place,
and plans were written,
and then we ex*cuted them,
and people listened.
They got the notice.
They got out of the way.
[metal clanking]
[sighing]
[Antonio Ortega] Crazy.
There's nothing left.
[Yenny] I can't believe.
I'm happy here.
Ooh.
[helicopter rotors beating]
[news reporter] The owners
of the Broken Rail Ranch
in West Kelowna
had to flee the fire
with their animals last week,
but Pumba the pig
was just too stubborn,
and refused to leave.
A helicopter pilot
fighting the fire
spotted Pumba from the sky
and air-dropped her
granola bars.
Firefighters are now
caring for her on the ground,
feeding her apples
and giving her water.
Sadly, though,
the ranch burned down.
[Crystal] When I first started
driving through the forest,
I couldn't breathe.
The intensity of that feeling
was overwhelming,
to the point where I felt like
I could pass out with this.
[osprey crying]
[sighing]
[Jeff] That's
our main entrance, right there.
I hung a lucky shoe
above the front door.
Apparently it didn't work.
[Jeff] I hung a lucky shoe
on the back door.
[Crystal] Yeah.
[Jeff] And I hung a lucky shoe
in front of the fireplace.
I don't know, I think there...
maybe there's some luck
in this somewhere, you know?
I guess the luck is
is that we're standing here.
Yeah.
[Crystal]
Everything looks so strange.
You think, "Did we really
live in there?"
Christmas, I'm not...
I don't think... I don't know
if we'll have a tree.
I don't know if I can...
Oh. Here's an angel.
[Crystal] Oh, yeah! Huh.
[Jeff chuckles]
I'm gonna keep an eye on this.
- You keep it.
- There we go.
[Jeff sniffs]
Yeah, it's pretty tough
to look at this.
[sniffs]
We had everything
set up here beautifully,
and, uh, it's all burnt now,
so all my stuff is just
laying all over the place.
It's all just a mess.
I'm starting
all over again at 56,
and I don't want to,
but I don't have a choice.
Mother Nature
had different plans for us.
[gorse whinnying]
[horse snorts and huffs]
[Crystal] These two,
over the past six years,
have done...
oh, I don't know,
5,000 rides through here?
[Jeff] 5,000 rides, yep.
[Crystal] And now our trail...
our trail is gone.
I think this is
the hardest thing,
is seeing our... our forest.
Like, it was so green in here.
All the flowers in the spring,
and when we'd take
the Girl Guides out,
and I'd always tell them
there are fairies
living in here.
[horse snorting]
This is hard on you.
You wanna look?
Yeah. Yeah, you know.
They've been through
a lot together, these two.
[Crystal]
The forests are burnt.
Our home is burnt.
Our animals
are completely disregulated
and displaced.
We are displaced.
Even surrounded by
all this chaos and darkness...
I still feel like
this is home.
And we still have this green...
beautiful green patch of grass
where Pumba was,
where she survived.
Hello, girl!
How is Little Miss Jedi Pig
this morning?
[oinking]
[Jeff] Hi.
[Crystal] And being there,
I finally could breathe.
[Jeff] Oh, that's fine.
That's good.
[Crystal] But her burns
look a lot better,
so she looks like she's healed.
[oinking]
[wind rising]
[Jaclyn]
It's been a very long year.
We were at one end
of the province to the other.
[Craig]
I was, like, 51 days straight.
Jackie, she was nonstop
working in the office, too,
by herself,
dispatching crews.
Crews have worked very hard.
Tired.
We're all exhausted.
You just didn't know
which way to go, at times.
You were guided by the fire.
There was days where,
after working a 12-hour shift...
the fire's gonna activate
even more...
[embers sizzling]
and you would work all night
to save communities.
Even though your tank is empty,
you found some ways
to just push through it.
[embers sizzling and hissing]
[Jason] First responders
can't be the first line
of defense.
[thunder claps]
We can't be the problem-solvers
for climate change.
How do we get ready,
as a community?
If we could spend
even a tiny fraction
of what was spent
putting fire out
preventing the next one...
that's the kind of thinking
that has to happen.
[Kevin Parkinson] We're gonna
burn 11 hectares
up there behind us.
It's been fuel-treated
by the Penticton Indian Band.
[Ben Sandy] Uh, so however
you want to break into groups,
I think we'll do
kind of half BC Wildfire,
half P.I.B. folks, so we can
all kind of work together,
all gain some experience.
[Ben] Fire is not
a bad thing on the landscape,
if it's well managed.
Everyone went
to full suppression,
North-America wide,
and across the world.
It's probably
not the best approach.
There's a shift in Canada,
U.S., Australia...
putting more prescribed fire
back on the landscape
to just help restore
that ecosystem,
and also help us manage fire
more safely and effectively.
[Xwestkin]
People are listening
and involving our people,
Indigenous people,
the Syeelhwh, the Syilx,
to go out there
and use some of their knowledge,
working together...
doing what's best for the land.
[Vern] I would call fire
the... rejuvenator.
Its real role
is to rejuvenate the land.
From the ashes
of that burnt grass or tree
rises new life.
It's like a Phoenix.
[Kara] I really like fire.
[chuckling]
Seeing the way that it moves...
so I think
it's really beautiful.
Beautiful but dangerous.
If you get too close,
you get hurt.
Today, we're gonna be going
up to SilverStar to burn...
[Tiffany]
Ever since I started working,
Kara's wanted
to come to work with me.
[Craig]
No, she's still here.
[Tiffany] When she turned 18,
she jumped on.
You two can head out now.
Tim, you guys
can head out. Okay?
Find out today how much longer
you'll be up there.
Okay?
[Tiffany] It's another week.
So I want to start it from,
like, the bottom side of the...?
Yeah. Yeah.
But in a bit, right?
So that it kinda pushes...
that way, it'll end up spreading
and burning nice and evenly
around the whole pile, right?
[Tiffany]
Being out on the land...
taking care of the land...
I love it.
I totally love it.
We just make sure that big fires
can't go through again.
I was so angry.
Like, when we first
lost our house...
I was angry at everything.
If I can do something
that'll help save
somebody else's home,
that's what I want to do.
[Craig] I'm just not
doing this for people.
We're also doing this
for habitat...
the deer, the moose,
the bears, everything.
Helping nature.
Helping people.
Looking after our Creator.
Our world is precious.
[drinking]
[axe splitting wood]
[Dora] I wonder how
life would be without fire.
I enjoy life.
I don't know if
I would enjoy it without fire.
I wouldn't. I know I wouldn't.
You always feel
that there's danger there...
that's true.
We could be as dangerous
as fire too, you know?
It's just, I guess,
we have to respect it.
Have a great respect for fire.
[thunder rolling]
[lightning and thunder]
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Incandescence (2024)
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