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‘In seconds the fire was upon us’ — West Kootenay wildfires in the 1960s

George Doi tells us about the drama of fighting fires in an earlier time
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The Star’s columnist on life in the Nelson area in the 50s and 60s, takes us back to some dangerous wildfires in those days.

The Sent fire

In the summer of 1967 people who lived in Castlegar, Kinniard and the surrounding communities had a ringside view of the wildfire that raced up the gulley and ravaged 2000 hectares of the mountainside.

This fire was named “Sent” because it was on Sentinel Mountain but coincidentally it was also the 100th forest fire in the Castlegar Ranger District and it happened on Canada’s centennial year.

In the daytime, you saw fires candling, leaping from treetop to treetop. Ground fires were moving swiftly and consuming everything in their paths.

From your vantage point you might have seen fire whirls sucking up the flames and flinging hot embers across Kootenay River and Brilliant Dam and starting new fires on that hill. The whole mountain was full of smoke.

In the evening you saw hundreds of little fires like they were separate bonfires. You couldn’t see the smoke and the fires looked tame.

Up close though the scene is much different. I don’t want to talk about the fire per se, but there are other things that are happening in every large forest fires besides fire suppression, that you might be interested to know.

On this particular day the firefighters on the east flank were making good progress building fireguards and applying water to hold back the fire from spreading and threatening Kalesnikoff’s mill. Everybody was working hard.

Then I got a call on my radio and the voice sounded urgent, telling me that the fire below had jumped the guard and was racing up our way. I quickly acknowledged the message and told everybody to get into the trucks and go down to the mill site.

I checked to make sure everyone was out and moved the fire hoses up closer to the roadside bank then hopped into my jeep to leave. Just then I saw a black object moving below in a draw.

It was a black bear, tired, resting then struggling to keep climbing. The fire got closer and closer and the bear looked back at the fire, looked up and saw me, took a few more steps but thoroughly exhausted, the bear’s legs buckled and it gave up and laid there.

I got down to the mill yard and we quickly organized a burn-off crew to touch off the perimeter slash on the fire-threatened side. Then by lighting up the slash at the right moment to ensure that the intense heat from the main fire would pull our perimeter fire towards it and not the reverse, we did it and it no longer posed a threat.

Relieved and hungry, I sat in my truck to have a sandwich.

Then a cougar walked by me, about three metres away. It looked at me and it was obvious that the animal had fled the fire and was looking for refuge.

The cougar was staggering as it entered the open garage door. Three or four men came running out of the garage. The cougar slipped out the side door and into the safety of the forests.

I have seen birds flying into the smoke instead of away from it. Do they get disoriented?

Once in a while we see large animals becoming victims of forest fires and occasionally find carcasses like deer. But there are also countless number of little animals like rabbits, squirrels and grouse that fall victim to fires that we perhaps don’t think about.

If your father or grandfather were at the mill, they would be able to tell you in a more personal way.

Pete Kalesnikoff was there and maybe his uncle Kuzma, too.

The Sul fire

This freak fire happened up Sullivan Creek at Hadikin’s operation. I dropped in at Hadikin’s office on my way to do a logging inspection. Markin the Homelite dealer was there giving a demonstration of the latest fire pump and telling George Hadikin to try it out for a week. After talking to George, I continued up the road driving by what appeared like last fall’s prescribed slash burn. There were still patches of snow on the ground, even though it was May.

While driving I looked all around to analyze the burn result. Up ahead, I noticed what looked like a wisp of smoke rising. Sure enough, there was a “sleeper” coming out from a cedar stump that had been burning down in the roots for quite some time.

I quickly drove back to tell George Hadikin about the fire and to test the pump on it. But before we could load the pump and fire tools on the truck, we saw a wall of fire racing towards us.

I noticed huge black clouds suddenly appearing overhead, and I have never seen clouds so low before. It was ominous. The air got cold and dark. The winds picked up to gale force and one-inch green pieces of lumber were flying off the piles into the bush.

In seconds the fire was upon us. It roared fiercely. We had no time to wet the row of slash beside the mill site. We had no choice but to meet the fire head on with our fire hose.

Hot embers were landing everywhere in the yard and under the mill and office shed where the fuels were drier. Workers with water pails and back pumps were running to put them out.

After half an hour of frantic battle the air calmed and the fire was no longer a threat. Only the fine fuels fanned by strong winds had burned and the rest were untouched because of ample moisture in the wood.

Fire on historic Brilliant Bridge

A local lady phoned to let us know that there was a fire on the bridge. She said that she didn’t have any water so she poured a bottle of baby’s milk but didn’t know if the fire was completely out.

I thanked her for being so ingenious and taking quick action on it.

I quickly drove out to the bridge with our 100-gallon slip-on tank and as I drove on the bridge I could see a whiff of steam ahead.

Obviously someone had discarded a lit cigarette butt and it had started to burn between the planks. It was still sputtering.

If the lady had not taken immediate action on it, the fire would have spread to the underside of the deck making it difficult to extinguish.

So kudos to her for doing the right thing — taking immediate suppression action and then reporting to us as quickly as possible.