Remembering a "Call Out" For A Forest Fire

     I worked for the BC Forest Service for 23 years.  Every spring Fire Protection, drew up a weekly schedule that assigned one staff member as the Protection Officer, and another employee scheduled to be “on call” if smoke was reported.  I was often “on call”.  That meant that I got a small amount of pay for being ready to respond in case I was needed.   I had to stay close to a Forest Service portable radio or to my home phone, in case of a call.  Other than that, I could live my life normally at home.  I also got to take Forestry pickup truck home, so I could respond to a “call out” from home.

    One evening I got a radio call from the Protection Officer, saying that a driver had reported .  I was told to drive out there and investigate.  That was all of the information that was given, so I didn’t really know what to expect when I got out there.

    It took me twenty minutes to drive to the West Twin Bridge and after crossing the bridge and starting the climb up the long hill, I got to an area where I did see a small whiff of white smoke drifting out from the trees on the right side of the highway.  I parked the truck on the side of the highway and made my way into the forest where the smoke was coming from.

    I didn’t have to go very far inside the trees, before I could see the source of the smoke.  It was a small campfire, and hunched beside it was a surprised man cooking his supper.  In talking to him I discovered that he was a bicycler, who had decided to pull over and spend the night camping in the woods.  (During the summer numerous long-range bike riders pedal up and down the hills of Highway 16 traveling from McBride to Prince George.  I always feel sorry for them because it is such a long, hilly, uninteresting endeavor without much rewarding scenery, just trees.  Doing that trip on a bike, always seemed to me like it would be torture.)

    I always hate to play the “Heavy”, but I needed to in this situation, given my job.  I told the biker that he couldn’t have a fire out there in the woods, and I pushed my authority and made him put the fire out, and not be doing it again.  The guy seemed chastened, and extinguished his small fire.  I am sure he was taken by surprise when I interrupted his supper in the middle of nowhere.  

    I radioed back to the Forestry Office to report what I had found and how I dealt with it, then I drove back home to resume my evening.

My paintings can be seen at:  davidmarchant2.ca