This is an archive of news stories and research from the National Union of Public and General Employees. Please see our new site - https://nupge.ca - for the most current information.
Listen to CBC's Quirks and Quarks related podcast above.
Firefighters say the fires in beetle-killed trees burn so hot it's like dealing with a forest of kiln-dried lumber. Dumping water and retardant on the flames doesn't work very well.
Edmonton (18 January 2011) - Wildfire experts say the tiny mountain pine beetle is making forest fires more dangerous to fight and they warn the problem will get worse in coming years as millions of dry, dead trees fall to the ground in British Columbia and Alberta.
In recent years fires have roared through dying and dead pine in the B.C. interior. The blazes have forced thousands of people from their homes and put fire crews at risk. In one case flames ate up 100 square kilometres in just three hours.
Firefighters say the fires in beetle-killed trees burn so hot it's like dealing with a forest of kiln-dried lumber. Dumping water and retardant on the flames doesn't work very well. Crews are usually forced to retreat and build containment lines -- lighting their own fires to starve the oncoming flames of fuel.
''You have to burn it out. Fight fire with fire is our best tool right now,'' said Dana Hicks, a fire management specialist with the B.C. Forest Service in Prince George.
''Any time you put fire on the land in conditions where fires are burning I always say you're dancing with the devil, because things can go wrong.''
The beetles have already destroyed about 163,000 square kilometres of timber in B.C. -- an area more than five times the size of Vancouver Island. The province estimates is has spent about $600 million to fight wildfires in the last two years.
British Columbia is sharing the hard lessons its fire crews have learned over the last decade with Alberta, where the beetles are much less well established, but have still infested an estimated 3.2 million trees since 2006.
The main point being made by B.C. experts is that crews can't fight a wildfire in beetle-killed timber the same way they would in a regular forest.
New tactics and safety procedures are needed for ground crews and aircraft that are tailored to how the dead pine trees deteriorate over time. Bark and tree canopies are the first to die and fires there spread very quickly and over long distances, which can put ground crews in danger.
Later, as the trunks of the dead trees dry out, fires burn more slowly, but much more intensely, creating updrafts that can put air tankers and helicopters at risk.
Experts warn the wildfire threat will get worse over a 20-year period as dead trees eventually fall to the ground and leave the forest floor heaped with tinder-dry fuel.
Mel Knight, Alberta's minister of sustainable resource development, said there will be more training when the risk of volatile beetle-kill fires increases.
''They are hot and spread very, very, quickly so those kinds of issues need to be well understood by the people who are in the front lines,'' he said.
''We are taking the situation extremely seriously. We most certainly will modify, if necessary, our training programs to be sure our people in Alberta will be properly trained.''
Over the last two years the Alberta and federal governments have spent more than $5 million on removing dead trees from forest areas near communities and remote First Nations reserves.
The government is also promoting a voluntary program called FireSmart that encourages municipalities and rural homeowners to develop their own plans to remove dead trees and wood debris.
NUPGE
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE