This human-interest story in the wild, wide world of woke comes from Canada. A prescribed burn, to be conducted by women firefighters, as part of “diversity and inclusion” in the dreaded male-dominated field of firefighting, went wrong. Banff National Park was set alight, and raged out of control. In the normal course of things, in prescribed burns done by experienced firemen, things go well, and no such out-of-control fires occur. But, it is a male-dominated field, and you can’t make diversity and inclusion omelettes, without breaking a few eggs, eh … forests.
“A prescribed burn highlighted on the agenda of a women’s firefighting conference, held to promote “diversity and inclusion” in a male-dominated field, didn’t go well.
Accidentally setting Banff National Park ablaze wasn’t part of the plan.
The prescribed burn was carried out in Compound Meadows, adjacent to the Banff townsite, by Parks Canada and participants in Canada’s first-ever Women-in-Fire Training Exchange (WTREX).
It raged out of control Wednesday forcing the temporary evacuation of horses from the Banff Light Horse Association and hundreds of area residents and tourists in the Rocky Mountain Resort.
Interchanges were closed. Traffic was backed up on the Trans Canada Hwy. A cemetery was threatened. Trees were scorched. Billows of smoke that could be seen in Canmore polluted and clouded the air.
Three tack sheds went up in flames. Heirloom saddles and chaps belonging to one family were destroyed.
The calvary was called in to help fight the blaze.
Five helicopters raining down buckets of water, firefighters from both Banff and Canmore, Alberta Wildlife, and RCMP were needed to help Parks Canada and WTREX participants stop the fire from spreading further, control the traffic situation, and help with evacuation efforts.
By Saturday, the fire that spread three hectares beyond the predetermined boundary was classified as “being held” while crews worked to snuff out hot spots.
It was updated to “under control” Sunday morning.
“The prescribed fire was carried out by Parks Canada,” said Alexandria Jones, fire communications officer for Parks Canada.
“The WTREX Canada participants assisted Parks Canada with prescribed fire operations.”
“We had 50 participants onsite. They were female for the most part. We do have a few men and a few folks who are non-binary.”
“They’re all highly trained firefighters.”
The Banff Fire Department was on hand — but only on standby to assist if needed.
“We’re just working on mop up right now and working on some hot spots. Hopefully, we can get back to our regularly scheduled activities very soon.”
WTREX Is an event to promote diversity and inclusion in fire management.
The May 1-12 conference attracted certified firefighters from Canada, the US, Bolivia, and Ecuador to, among other things, combat adversity in a male-dominated profession.
Jane Park, the only female Type 1 incident commander in Parks Canada helped organize WTREX. She works to raise awareness for wildland firefighter with gender diversity issues.
Park told Postmedia the WTREX team working on the blaze was “the cream if the crop.”
Park, who is responsible for all aspects of emergency response, could not be reached for comment.
Parks Canada blamed a sudden wind shift in direction and speed for the fire escaping it’s predetermined 300-hectare boundary. The wind picked up from about 10 km/h to almost 30 km/h.
“This was a prescribed fire that was part of Banff’s National Park’s Fire Management Program. It’s been on the books for a long time," said Jones.
Prescribed burns are conducted as part of a fuel management solution to reduce the buildup of flammable grass, trees, leaves, and shrubs.
Jones said WTREX participants were “fully qualified to respond.”
“It’s thanks to the WTREX participants that everything got under wraps pretty quick.”
Jones said “an extensive after-action review” will be done to study areas of improvement.
One seasoned senior Alberta municipal firefighter spoke to the Western Standard on the condition of anonymity.
Partly, because reasonably discussing the diversity issue is like entering the forbidden zone.
“It’s such a tinderbox. I’d be worried for my job if I was attached to anything questioning standards.”
He admitted he has “no idea what their physical requirements or employment standards” of the WTREX participants are.
“If they were doing live fire exercises as advertised, it likely wasn’t a matter of poor physical or technical performance as much as a matter of poor judgement.”
“For example, choosing to do live burn exercises in a windy/dry environment or not having proper safety buffers in place could result in this type of catastrophe and no amount of physical or technical capability could make up for that poor judgement.”
Prescribed burns getting out of control is uncommon.
“I’ve done dozens of controlled burns around municipalities without incident. But these burns were done carefully in small, manageable sections to ensure the fire couldn’t get too big.”
“If done improperly they can easily get out of control. An errant ember landing in an errant area is all it takes. But usually, these burns are done very carefully, under just the right conditions, and led by experienced officers so mishaps are rare.”
Although a few people thanked the WTREX team for its efforts, comments on Banff National Park’s Facebook page were mostly critical.
“Prescribed fires should be banned! Who in their right minds do this during windy and extremely dry conditions with recent high heat temperatures, in addition to bird nesting season and wildlife birthing?! This is unnecessary and simply appalling!”
“It was wrong to do a burn when it's super dry. This could have waited or been done late fall when conditions are cooler and more damp. Bad planning. All those barns burnt down now could have been avoided.”
“It was a bad decision no matter how you rationalize it. Whatever purported expert allowed the highway to light on fire should probably re-evaluate their decision making. A shift in wind is a foreseeable probability with the forecast we had. It was stupid to do the prescribed burn now. Could have waited for cooler, calmer weather.”
Many others questioned the planning and asked “why now?”
“Because women needed to prove something at their wildfire conference.”
“I work in the forestry industry and vegetation management…There’s also always the option to cancel a plan because it isn’t an optimal environment for burning on that particular day, better to cancel a prescribed burn than to proceed and cause a wildfire on the gamble that one might appear later in the summer.”
The WTREX conference was advertised as an exchange that combines practical live-fire training with indoor learning and discussion to advance qualifications in wildland fire operations.
“WTREX is an opportunity to engage participants of all genders, ethnic, and racial backgrounds to explore the growing role of women in fire management while also serving as a training opportunity to enhance their understand of Incident Command System, fire ecology, communications and outreach, leadership, prescribed fire planning and more.”