Past the RCMP check point in the evacuation zone just north of Nazko, properties and driveways are marked with pink ribbons indicating their level of structural protection. The area is thick with smoke, settled over the road like a dense, choking fog, and you can go long stretches without seeing a soul, before running into the odd truck full of firefighters or structural protection specialists on the road. In one spot, a few horses roam free, just outside the field they had been in an hour earlier.
The area north and west of Nazko was evacuated on Aug. 11 due to several wildfires burning nearby. Late last week, an incident management team (IMT) was brought in to co-ordinate efforts to suppress the Wildfires of Note in the North Cariboo.
Those fires include the Narcosli Creek Fire, located approximately 31 kilometres south west of Quesnel; the Blackwater River Fire, located approximately 72 kilometres west of Quesnel and east of the Blackwater River; the North Baezaeko Fire, located south of Kluskoil Provincial Park and approximately 85 kilometres west of Quesnel; and the Shag Creek Fire, located west of Shag Creek and north of Itcha Ilgachuz Provincial Park.
These fires make up the Baezaeko Complex. The BC Wildfire Service manages large and complex fires by assigning them an IMT. The IMT is meant to relieve some of the pressure on the local Fire Centre and Fire Zone, so they can focus on new fire starts while the IMT focuses on the fires within their complex.
The BC Wildfire Service also outlined this process in a facebook post, writing: “IMTs follow a strict organizational structure called the Incident Command System (ICS) led by an Incident Commander who is responsible for all incident activity. The various areas of response are divided into sections, which are led by section chiefs.”
The five chiefs cover operations (which is responsible for co-ordinating what is happening on the ground at the fires), logistics (which is responsible for getting supplies and organizing the camp), planning (which deals with mapping the fires and coming up with an incident action plan, outlining objectives for all the crews), and finance (which makes sure everyone gets paid).
The IMT has also set up a camp for everyone working on fires within the Baezaeko Complex. The camp is set up at Sylvia’s on Nazko Road, organized into rows of tents and trailers, where those working on the fires eat, sleep and gather their supplies. There are 203 personnel currently living in the camp, and 171 of them are firefighters.
There are also 40 firefighters from Mexico living in the camp and working on fires in the complex. They arrived in Canada on Aug. 16.
READ MORE: North Baezaeko Fire grows, but cold front did little damage at Blackwater River
heather.norman@quesnelobserver.com
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