Mr. Speaker, the 2014 forest fire season is officially over.
This year a total of 3.4 million hectares of forested land were affected by 385 wildland fires. This was composed of six reported fires in the Inuvik region, 32 in the Sahtu region, 52 in the Deh Cho region, 143 in the North Slave region and 152 in the South Slave region. An estimated $60 million was spent fighting fires in the 2014 forest fire season.
In keeping with established policies, action was taken on 126, or 33 percent, of reported fires to protect values at risk. Wildland fire responses were required on eight large complex fires that had the potential to affect communities and other major infrastructure.
The 25-year average annual fire load is 262 fires affecting 528,000 hectares of northern forest lands.
Core support to the fire program this year included six helicopters and four air tanker groups from both territorial and other Canadian aircraft contracting companies. Several short-term casual helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft were hired through the fire season to supplement the core program. Additional tanker groups were imported from other provinces through the Mutual Aid Resources Sharing Agreement, or MARS Agreement, to assist with the heavy fire load.
Twenty-eight type 1 government and contract wildland fire crews were located across the NWT to provide initial attack capacity. Another 175 seasonal and permanent personnel provided direct support to the fire program.
Several additional national resources were brought on over the fire season to help with ongoing fires and initial attack during severe burning conditions.
Four hundred eighty-five EFFs, or extra firefighters, were hired in 2014 for training purposes or in support of fire operations. This included the initial EFFs hired at the start of the season and the additional training camps held in various communities to bring more EFFs on board to cope with the length and severity of the season.
Four hundred sixty-eight type 1 wildland firefighting personnel were imported from outside the NWT under the Mutual Aid Resources Sharing Agreement. These imports consisted of crews, aircraft and overhead resources. These crews were composed of eight Canadian provinces and the State of Alaska.
In addition, nine incident management teams consisting of five to 15 people were necessary to coordinate the fire response. There were five from Ontario, two from Alberta, one from British Columbia and one from Nova Scotia/New Brunswick.
Several single resources were also imported to assist with the heavy workload. These included planning specialists, fire behavior specialists, warehouse personnel, two community protection specialist teams and five air attack officers.
Training for the 2014 fire season included seasonal refresher training of type 1 crews, S-100 basic firefighter training, fire line leadership, fuel system training, and fire reporting training for fire clerks, warehouse staff and duty officers as required.
As Members are aware, this was a particularly challenging season for fire crews. The NWT experienced long-term above average seasonal conditions including above average seasonal temperatures and below average precipitation. This resulted in extreme drought conditions that lasted much of the 2014 wildland fire season.
Given the extreme conditions, limited resources and large complex fires, Mr. Speaker, I would consider this a successful fire season in that there was no loss of life, no significant injuries and no significant damage done to any community.
As well as 3.4 million hectares of our northern forests affected, there were, unfortunately, some structural losses, Mr. Speaker. In early July a home on the Hoarfrost River was lost due to fire. High winds and extreme fire conditions caused the fire to switch directions and destroy a home and some outbuildings on the Hoarfrost River.
Again, during the weekend of August 16th , strong
southwest winds and explosive fire behavior conditions caused a fire to jump Moraine Bay and resulted in the loss of the Moraine Point Lodge on the west side of Great Slave Lake. While the Moraine Point Lodge and outbuildings were lost, the fire did not reach the commercial fish processing plant on Moraine Bay.
While the above losses were significant, we must not overlook the effects and losses traditional harvesters are bearing from this past season: approximately 15 cabins including a community complex at Lake 690 north of Fort Providence, and trapping areas removed from use for five to seven years while the land recovers. Our government expects to assist a number of harvesters under our Harvesters’ Fire Damage Assistance Program.
Fires of note in 2014 include the Kakisa complex, which began in late May. This fire was very difficult to contain and spread to 100,000 hectares. The fire caused the voluntary evacuation of the community in July and help from several crews from Alberta, NWT, Saskatchewan, Yukon and Ontario managing this complex over a two-month period.
Due to the community’s significant work FireSmarting around Kakisa and the commendable efforts of the firefighters and air tankers, there were no structural losses and residents were able to return to their community with little to no damage.
The Birch Lake complex, composed of over six fires between Behchoko and Fort Providence, resulted in periodic closure of Highway No. 3 mainly due to extreme smoke conditions. Most of the work on this fire consisted of the construction of dozer guards on the south side of the fire to restrict growth towards Fort Providence and the Forest Management Agreement areas. Four different incident management teams from the NWT and Ontario managed this complex over a two-month period. The Birch Lake complex is estimated to be 650,000 hectares in size.
The Reid Lake complex started from a fire in the Consolation Lake area. The fire was first actioned by fire crews to protect values in the area. It eventually threatened values in the Highway No. 4 Ingraham Trail area and caused the closure of the Reid Lake Territorial Park for a few weeks while crews were stationed at the campground. Incident management teams from Ontario, Nova Scotia and the NWT managed the complex over a six-week period from mid-June through to the end of July. The fire is 365,000 hectares in size.
ZF-085, the fire that was approximately 30 kilometres from Yellowknife and seven kilometres from Highway No. 3, caused the voluntary evacuation of residents along the Yellowknife Highway and a number of public safety updates. The fire burned approximately 15,000 hectares.
Mr. Speaker, over the coming months, ENR will be engaging stakeholders to determine stakeholder values and priorities. FireSmart and value protection is part of our annual comprehensive review. The department will also administer applications for compensation to renewable resource harvesters with re-establishing their livelihood under the Harvesters’ Fire Damage Assistance Program for possible replacement of lost cabins or for clearing trails affected by wildfires.
The department conducts maintenance activities for air tanker and fire bases, fixed detection sites, fuel systems, the lightning detection network, the automatic fire weather station network and radio communications.
Environment and Natural Resources also completed construction of the Enterprise fixed detection tower which will be operational in the summer of 2015.
Under normal seasonal fall weather, cooler and wetter conditions would wet the deeper forest layers and reset drought values. Without sufficient fall rain as well as significant over-winter precipitations, drought conditions may persist into the 2015 fire season.
I would also like to take this opportunity to extend a heartfelt thank you to the men and women from the Northwest Territories, across Canada and Alaska who fought fires on the ground and in the air this
summer. They worked tirelessly to protect us, our homes, our communities and our values during the toughest fire season on record. They faced intense, often grueling conditions, and I am very proud of the professionalism and courage they displayed in our time of need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
