Taking a look behind the fire scene
Telegram photographer Joe Gibbons gets a personal tour of an Avondale forest fire mop-up
Sometimes to get to the root of a story, journalists have to go through great lengths and get down and dirty.
Tuesday afternoon I was assigned to go to Avondale just after 1 p.m. for a followup on Monday’s late-afternoon forest fire in the area.
I drove into Avondale searching for forest firefighters. A helpful resident advised me to “keep doing down that-a-way, me buddy, and you’ll find ’ em.” He pointed to the old railway track just past the historic train station.
A few minutes later I met veteran provincial Natural Resources forest firefighter Walter Hawco who was just grabbing a snack and a bottle of water.
The “fire boss” took me on a trek through the woods, at least a mile and a half, to where his crew was watering down hot spots.
We began our trek through the woods talking over the noise of water being pumped from Lee’s Pond — the town’s water source.
“Yesterday (Monday),” said Hawco, “we got the call around 4 o’clock and when we arrived there was a lot of heavy, heavy smoke and ... blazes going over the tops of the trees.”
His face wore the marks of a hard day’s work, with streaks of soot across his cheeks, large hands and yellow forestry coveralls.
To help fight the fire Monday, Hawco said, the six forest firefighters dispatched from the Salmonier depot were joined by close to 70 municipal volunteer firefighters from around the Conception Bay area.
Hawco said the origin of the fire was believed to be just off to the side of the railway track. He pointed, walking over the smouldering forest floor.
“We’ve been all over this morning, wetting it down and even the helicopter with its bamby bucket dropping water down. It was completely out (but) the ground is that hot, here it is all up again,” he said.
“There’s a job to do anything with it, and we got some 6,000 feet of hose dragged all through the woods to the end of the fire area and we are still dealing with hot spots,” Hawco said.
We continued our trudge through the woods, passing water bottles next to fire hose backpacks and lunch kits scattered on the ground. I broke off tree branches, squeezed in between other fire damaged branches, stepped over fallen trees and kept my eyes peeled for puddles left by the fire fight.
Reaching the end of the road we met forest firefighter Kevin Grace, also from the Salmonier Depot. He was jet spraying around one burnedout area as a Natural Resources helicopter flew overhead surveying the site.
“It all looks good from up here in the air,” was the message over the walkie-talkies of Grace and Hawco, as they hauled the blackened hose through the cinder-covered tree trunks, limbs and branches.
About 20 minutes or so passed before the chopper pilot told Hawco he was going to land in a nearby field to wait on more hose lengths from waiting fire trucks parked further out on the trail.
We headed back and nearly halfway out, we met forest fire fighter Doug Harrison from the Paddy’s Pond depot who was extending a hose. When it was fully charged, he began soaking the gound. Soot and earth splattered up from the force of the spray.
Nearing the gravel road, Hawco told me eight firefighters had also arrived Tuesday from Cape Broyle, Salmonier and Paddy’s Pond to help mop up. About 15.7 hectares of woods were burned in the fire.
“I think the forecast calls for rain showers either tomorrow or Thursday and the rain will be a true bless- ing,” said Hawco, “There were also three rabbits over there in the woods that perished in the fire we saw earlier today. I guess the smoke got to the poor buggers and then they just got confused.”
After making a three-mile trek in and out of the woods and helping Hawco and Grace move some of the 6,000 feet of hose through the trees, the task was completed.
With particles of tree needles and other remnants in my camera bag, some clinging to my hair, I felt like I had emerged from a movie scene.
Clothes and sneakers covered in soot, I wasn’t very clean when I got back to the railway bed, bound for St. John’s. Looking in the rearview mirror while backing out, I noticed a few streaks of soot across my face.
I felt just like one of the Natural Resources guys in the woods.