Canadian wildfires: What NY forest rangers learned from weeks battling 40,000-acre blaze

As Canadian wildfires continue to rage against man and machine this summer, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers — just back from two weeks of fighting fires in the wilderness — said it was a stark reminder of the power of Mother Nature.

The group of 20 rangers, including Sayville-based Long Island Region ranger John Scott, were among approximately 200 men and women, including U.S. Forest Service Hotshots from the western states, who battled a 40,000-acre wildfire out of the Micoua Fire Complex in Quebec.

The region is hundreds of miles northeast of Quebec City and hundreds of miles due north of Bangor, Maine. The closest towns are a bunch of places most have never heard of: Sept-Iles, Baie-Comeau, Sagueny; regional locales such as Tour-Fraser, Rapides-du-Diable and Kashipiathutshemus.

"Long Island is pretty flat," Scott said. "We don't have mountain ranges or anything to really climb when we have fires. It's pretty easy and pretty open, especially when fire comes through a forested area. Most of the ground is level, so it's a pretty easy walk in. You can get around the fire to make sure it doesn't get any bigger."

In contrast, he said, in the "Canadian wilderness you don't really have that option."

A Rochester native who joined the DEC after attending Binghamton University and the University at Buffalo, Scott said of the Canadian wilderness: "The vegetation is extremely thick. There's a lot of flash — downed trees, a lot of stuff in the way, a lot of stuff to climb over, climb around."

Scott said there's also a big difference in elevation. "A lot of times you have to figure out how to climb up pretty steep terrain to get to hot spots we wanted to get to ... The tactics are completely different."

Usual tactics such as establishing barrier zones using so-called ground pounders and dirt diggers — rangers who dig barrier lines and create safe zones around wildfire areas to contain blazes — are near-impossible, according to supervisor Gary Miller, out of the Hamilton County Region, because of the remote locale.

Instead, the rangers often were transported in and out of firefighting areas via helicopter and lugged hoses a half-mile from pumps, accessing water from remote ponds, rivers and streams just to get water on the fire.

Miller said the fire areas are so vast — more than 24 million acres have already burned this summer — the wildfires may not be stopped until winter. "It's just too big," he added.

State DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos called the some 170 rangers working for the DEC "the state Swiss Army knife" for the variety of roles they face, noting he'd first met Scott during the pandemic at a COVID-19 testing facility on Staten Island. Seggos said the need for that versatility may play a greater role moving forward — with Canadian wildfires, as well as flash floods that last week wreaked havoc on upstate counties, leaving one person dead, fast becoming the new-normal.

"It's been a uniquely challenging summer for our first responders here in New York," Seggos said. " The pace of severe weather, the pace of damage being done to our environment, is accelerating — and the old way of addressing this is going to need to change."

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”