What it’s like being in charge of fighting a 30,000-hectare wildfire

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Kevin Topolnicki is Alberta's man in charge of putting out the Burnt Lake fire on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range. The blaze covered 31,334 hectares at its peak – the largest he has handled as an incident commander. He is overseeing a 41-person command team, 168 firefighters, 18 bulldozers, 17 helicopters, and three track hoes. He spoke with Carrie Tait.

How do you co-ordinate with oil sands companies on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range?

I've been going through our industry liaison assigned to the fire team to deal directly with the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range Control Safety and Co-ordination Team, which has been dealing with oil and gas for us.

So it is pretty unique up here in that we have that relationship built with those stakeholders like Range Control to help guide us and be our voice to industry. They check in every night, we e-mail and text constantly, so we can provide a message they can pass on to oil and gas companies.

It has been a good, one-window contact for us with industry. It allows us to focus on the fire.

That's been quite beneficial to us. This fire has gone smooth since Day 1 with the DND. I have been absolutely happy and thrilled to work with them. We've been working back-and-forth for airspace control, because they have work to do as well. The relationship was built prior to this.

How do you deal with energy infrastructure, such as pipelines?

They haven't been a concern at all. We know what's out there. We make sure in the safety plan that everyone is aware there might be hydrogen sulphide, that there are pipelines that we might cross with the dozers, that we have to build a pad to go across first. We've been through this so much that it is almost second nature for us in terms of the hazards of what to watch for out there. We have a checklist that we do every morning, have a briefing every single morning with every crew member.

What is the biggest threat with this fire?

Because of how dry it has been, even without wind, this fire was causing a lot of problems because it was seeking out fuel that was readily available to burn, such as the black spruce. So, when we got here, our priorities were to make sure it didn't move south toward the communities, or west toward the oil fields. Or, at least limit that growth so we could get evacuated people back in as soon as we could, as soon as it was safe enough.

We're at the point where we're limiting access based on the plan that Range Control developed for re-entry. They are looking at the power lines, sending out bear dogs to make sure facilities are free of any bears. There's a slow progression to build back up again.

It may be a little while yet before we're able to give everyone access to the sites, because it is such a big fire that there are islands of timber that are still burning.

It comes down to safety. Human life is our No. 1 priority.

What decisions do you make on the ground?

I look after the team in the command function. So, I oversee all operations, all tactical decisions, as well as the logistics side – getting the camps in, getting the manpower, the equipment, the food, is all run through myself. And then there's the financial side as well.

We have financial experts assigned to the team who monitor all the costs related to the fire from all the helicopters, the heavy equipment down to the hours worked by the people in my team, so we can keep everything all together and make sure we're able to account for our costs when the fire is over.

I oversee the incident management team on this scene. I sit down with my incident command staff daily and we come up with a game plan on how best to attack this fire – which tactics we will use and where we will commit resources.

I have a lot of experience on my team. I listen to their advice, and in the end I have the final authority to make the decisions.

What did you learn from this fire?

With how dry it is, and the fire actually picking the fuels that it wanted to burn; the fire was running [actively burning through new forested area] early in the morning until sundown.

It's been a challenge for fireline staff, especially with the safety aspect – to make sure their control zones – safe places to head to in case the fire starts to shift direction – are in place, to make sure they've gone through the briefings, to make sure they understand the weather and expected fire behaviour.

A lot of people gained a lot of experience based on this fire. The wildfire behaviour, and the way the fire reacted, it allowed people to gain a new perspective to wildfires, our strategies on fighting wildfires and how best to establish and maintain control of large fires.

This interview has been edited and condensed