Sask. First Nations get resourceful to prepare for wildfire season

In a wildfire, this force and this force save entire ecosystems. I love trees, right? So when I see them burn, I don’t like that. So I like to go out. And you know, the aspect of saving nature is really heartwarming I guess. But saving people and homes is what inspired Calvin Charles to take up firefighting 8 years ago. His own home in northern Saskatchewan was almost destroyed after getting evacuated and stuff. I didn’t really like it. And I felt, like, helpless. So he and others from around the north are learning to use what they can to protect their homes. Water from a half frozen lake to douse flames. Pickaxes to manually dig fire breaks when machines just can’t get to them. Ottawa recently set aside 175,000,000 for First Nations to deal with this and future fire seasons. And it wants standardized firefighting training in First Nations by next year, a tough ask when some places still don’t have basic infrastructure. And there’s some communities, especially rural and remote communities, that even have access coming in and out to to get training. And we have to keep that all in the back of our minds that not everybody’s downtown Toronto. Ottawa says wildfire caused the evacuation of more than 91st Nations last year. This year, it’s giving each First Nation in Alberta money to hire an Emergency Management coordinator. The money could be crucial for the Athabasca Chippewa First Nation. Some areas can only be evacuated by air or water, and right now boats could get trapped by low water levels. People in the community say that they’ve never seen it this bad in their lifetime. The whole community is at risk if there was a forest fire that burnt out of control. That fear of getting stuck keeps these men going to keep the fires at Bay to save lives and their homes. Sam Sampson, CBC News, on the shores of Lac La Plange, Saskatchewan.