Look at how much that's burning. >> This time on Hellfire Heroes. >> Fanning up whole thing. >> It's the start of the wildfire season. >> Get the trees. >> When even the smallest fire can burn out of control. A man is seriously injured in a devastating crash. >> All the difference of being alive or dead would have been a seat belt. >> A boat capsizes, launching a massive search and rescue operation for the missing occupants. Where are these people? In the untamed wilderness of Alberta, where seasonal wildfires can destroy a town in a single day for a mobile fire. >> A special breed of firefighters risk their lives. >> One, two, three. to serve and protect the people who live and work here. >> When it's game day, >> just hit the engine part. >> It's on until the last person is safe. >> We got two down here. >> We truly are the last line of defense for anybody that's out there. >> From battling a raging home fire up >> to search and rescue. >> Hey bud, we're coming. >> No job is too big. >> Second crew on me. Let's go. >> Or too small. >> There's a cat. Watch >> because they're jacks of all trades. >> Hurry up. Hurry up. >> And masters of them all. >> Our fire crews put their lives on the line every day. >> It's all about honor, courage, dedication. Serve something greater than yourself. >> It's early spring in Slave Lake and the wildfire season has just begun. >> This region is one of the top producers of wildfires. We're covering 10,490 km, lots of spruce trees, lots of boreal forest. So, we always have one of the highest counts in the province. >> We're all just talking about how dry it is. Let's know. >> Chief Jamie Coots conducts a simple test to determine the wildfire threat level. >> The perfect conditions to start a wildfire would be hot, dry, and probably in the spring before everything starts to green up. >> I guess we can go ahead and say it's dry. So the fine fuels is really dry and and it spreads really quickly. >> It's dry. >> Yeah. It makes me a little nervous. The grass is lighting with less than a second of flame contact. So with this sun, it's drying out the fine fuels and in no time we'll be back at her, I guess. >> Born and raised in Slave Lake, Jaime has lived with wildfires all his life, including one of the most catastrophic fires the country has ever seen. [Music] In 2011, a firestorm swept through the town of Slave Lake and forced thousands from their homes. >> Every single solitary house and all of these condos on this street are burnt to the ground. It was the worst that I'd ever seen. Everything's blowing in on us. The crews are all splattered all over the place. Communication is breaking down. The public's coming to us for answers that we don't have. >> Firefighters battled the blaze through the weekend. >> Trying to fight a fire that you're just absolutely losing. Hold on a minute. It's a hard story to tell. Before they got it under control, the fire destroyed 30% of the town. And the citizens of Slave Lake made a pledge. >> We all said, "We're not going to run into that again." And you can't fight wildland fires from behind. You have to fight them head on and you have to be ahead and and get ahead and stay ahead. What do you think, Patty? I think we should light on fire. >> One of the most effective ways to protect homes and communities from wildfire is to reduce flammable vegetation, even if it means starting a fire. We'll go and do grass burning. So, we'll just remove that fuel so that there isn't a hazard there. And we get the dead grass, burn it away, and then the green grass comes up. To prevent the fire from burning out of control, Patrick and his crew build a fire guard along the tree line, a barrier between the field they want to burn and the forest they want to protect. They burn the field in rectangular sections, each about the size of a backyard swimming pool. In the past decade, Alberta's forested area has been hit with about 1,500 wildfires every year. >> Look at how much that's burning. more than enough to convince Jaime and crew to keep up the fight. >> We live in a community in a region that has a lot of wildfire potential. I think overall everybody supports what we're trying to do here, which is just to protect them and and keep the place safe. >> The preventative burn crew is done for today, but it's just the beginning of the wildfire season, and they all know it's going to get real busy real soon. I call one report >> in Canyon Creek for a bus fire. There is fire threatening a house and some other equipment playing around the bus. >> You're going to have a full crew here in a couple of minutes. >> Chief is headed to a 911 call for a burning bus and he's all business. >> Bus fire is a big thing for us. You know, is there kids still on the bus and is the driver off the bus? And is it a diesel powered bus or a gas powered bus or a propane powered bus? And so there's all of these questions and no answers. We don't see any smoke yet. Still don't see. Oh, right there. >> But dispatch was given the wrong information. It's not a vehicle fire. >> Switch. It's not a bus. It's brush. >> Okay. Update for everybody. It's a wood pile, not a bus, but it's uh definitely raging close to a camper and trailer and some trees. >> Fire trucks coming. Oh, we got more fire trucks coming than you ever seen. >> Bring everyone in. We'll need all the water to get this knocked down. It's a fairly big pile. >> It might look like just a big bonfire, but this is the wildfire season when it only takes one spark to ignite an entire forest. >> The brush fire turns into small forest fire, which turns into big forest fire and then structures are lost and people's lives are impacted. >> We got a lot of water coming here right now. A convoy of four trucks and one command vehicle from two regional halls carrying over 19,000 L of water arrive on scene. Proof that Jaime won't let this fire get the upper hand. >> This fire is burning up into the trees and it's a pretty big roaring fire. I want to knock that thing down. >> Ryan, I'd like to run the water cannon on 161. >> Running hose lines takes time. >> Cannon up whole thing. But the water cannon, aka the deck gun, deploys in seconds. [Music] A second deck gun joins the fight. >> Hey, Sean, get the trees. >> Sean Kernney uses a handheld remote to direct his deck gun into the trees. >> I'm just spraying down the trees, trying to keep them cool. They got cooked pretty bad, so we don't want to make sure any embers uh traveled out in the back of the bush there to start another fire. Research has revealed that windblown embers are a major factor in the spread of wildfires and that flying embers from a forest fire cause the majority of structure fires. Formed from partially burned coal or wood, raisinsized embers can reach temperatures as high as 600° C. Lightweight airborne embers can travel as far as 17 km and can ignite rooftops and home siding and enter homes through ventilation openings and once inside ignite the entire structure. [Music] In 2016, a blizzard of embers blew across the kilometer wide Atabaska River and sparked the flames that destroyed between 10 and 20% of the homes in Fort McMurray. >> Think that's good, Sean. Long as we keep dumping that on. >> It was a fairly big pile. You have to put a ton of water on it cuz you don't want it to smolder. You don't want it to reignite. You don't want it to sneak away from you. >> Hey, Paul, I want that hydrant. the rural areas around where we live, there's not always hydrants. And on that road, there happened to be a hydrant. So, that was great. >> So, we'll go that hand line right into this truck and then have a 2 and 1/2 in from this truck able to feed one of these other ones. >> The hydrant provides an unlimited supply of water to engine 161 for its own hand lines and for hand lines on two other fire trucks. >> You guys good? All right, Ryan, >> we're good. >> Armed with an unlimited supply of water, Jamie is free to go full throttle. >> That's why we have this much water. We can put it all on there, gain control. We'll dump 5900 gallons on here in less than 5 minutes. We'll have control. I just want to make sure we got it circled. Eh, got a crew ringing one way, a crew ringing the other way, and uh water cannon going right on. So, we should be able to penetrate the pile good and make sure it's out. You're happy back there. Out 5,900 gallons of water and we got ourselves a winner. Now that the fire's out, Chief Coots turns his attention to the delicate matter of how it started. >> Little guy, he lives on fire. What intention? >> I accidentally lighted a branch. >> My name is Jamie. I'm the fire chief. So, I just wanted to come over and uh say hi to you. Little guy playing with fire is always a tough thing to deal with. I want everyone to know that fire is a tool. So if we start looking at it as an education about how we use that tool and how we don't use that tool, uh we might have some more success. >> You know, like this could have all been spruce trees and then what? The leaves are all burnt. That tree is all burnt. People got to be careful. People got to be careful. >> Fire extinguished. >> The fire is extinguished. [Music] 287 km southwest of Slave Lake near Edson. Yellowhead County is also on high alert for the wildfire season. >> A tractor trailer following hay bales is on fire on Highway 60 and it is spreading the grass over. >> A hay bale fire has captured Yellowhead County Fire Chief Albert Barry's full attention. >> Wild that fire season for us is officially here. Conditions are right. So hopefully this is just something that we can get at quick and knocked down. >> When the driver saw smoke pouring out the back of his truck, he pulled over and stopped in the emergency lane. >> They happen to fall off the trailer. They'll literally unroll and as they unroll, that hay will ignite. >> There are plenty of hay bales in these parts, and they're often the source of devastating fires. >> Hay fires are a pain in the rear end. Truthfully, the fire and hay will spread very, very quickly. It's very tender. It's very dry. As they burn, they start to break up and you'll get the embers moving. And what is it extending into? Is it dry grass in the ditch? We've got that extension hazard. So, there's there's a multitude of different things you have to look at. Albert is still in route and fire engine is already on the scene, but with only two volunteer firefighters, Daryl Doo and 12-year veteran Penny Low. >> There was two people that day. When you're the person that's around, you go and you do it. You rely on your training. you use it and you don't go off and do crazy things cuz that's when people get hurt. We knocked it down initially with the deck gun and then we pulled out a a hand line. >> Daryl's manning the pump so Penny will have to run the hose line by herself >> with less than full pressure until backup arrives. >> I'm not a spring chicken anymore. I don't need to have enough pressure to knock me on my backside. I just need enough water coming out the front of that hose that I can be effective and still work the hose by myself. It's good to know that you have fellow firefighters coming back you up on the line. >> Firefighter Brett Morrison arrives on scene with a full 5700 L tank of water. >> Hay bales are very flammable. The drier they are, the easier they'll light up. And if they light and wind picks up and blows them away, it could just escalate from there. My job here is to feed the engine with water. >> Brad sets up a water line to drain the water from his tanker into engine 8. >> Once it's hooked up, it's just a matter of flowing, keeping up that flow. >> With a backup man steadying the line, Penny turns up the pressure. You want to grab this? >> To make sure the fire is really out, they break up the bales and give them a good soaking. >> There's a high volume of flammable material in them. There's a lot of hay that will burn and burn for a long time, but it's so tightly packed. Until you break that hay apart, you can't get out the fire. >> As a final step, they cover the hay with a layer of foam. foam just helps extinguish it. It takes the oxygen away, so hopefully it'll keep any fires from reigniting. So far, there's no smoke, so I think we're good here. >> Fire Chief Albert Barry is most impressed with the high turnout of volunteers. People came from the job state. If you look around at the people that are here, Daryl was farming, Curtis was working, Penny was work, everybody that was here, with the exception of our our casual crew that came out of station 12 and station 10, everybody else paid on. He came from home. So again, dedicated volunteers coming out to assist anytime they need to. >> I dropped what I had to do and this is where I need to be right now. >> She is one of those people that will drop whatever she's doing in the blink of an eye in an instant. Come on, help. >> Can they just push it? >> Yeah, we're going to push it on while they stop. I'm not. >> She just goes goes goes and goes to the point where I walk out and go, "Hey, you're as old as I am. Come here and come over and sit down here for a minute. Slow down a little bit. let those young people do this for her community. She will bend over backwards. We can't ask for any more than that. >> Well, the trailer's still all intact. A little bit of hay. Long as nobody gets hurt, nothing really matters. >> Thanks, guys. >> With the fire out and the trailer saved, it's time to head back to the hall. Back in Slave Lake, Jaime's crew is on high alert. Along with Alberta Forestry, they're tracking the threat of wildfires and keeping an eye on the weather. >> Basically forecasting lightning and still the wind's gusting 50 >> today. There's lots of wind. Winds at 30, gusting to 50, which is pretty substantial for this area. Got the chance of lightning coming in through the south, too. So, they're keeping an eye on that. >> In Alberta, lightning strikes ignite over a third of all wildfires. Lightning combined with hot, dry weather and high winds which fuel the fire with oxygen and spread the flames creates the perfect storm for a wildfire. And it's every spring so you know it's coming and you know you're going to take a bit of a butt kick. >> And it doesn't take long for the 911 calls to start coming in. We have a smoldering fire. Caller indicated it was approximately 20 square ft in size. Kilome 42 on the old highway. >> Wildfire guys. >> A witness spotted smoke deep in the woods about 40 km from the hall. >> Time is your enemy. You have to outthink it, out maneuver it. For every second we're not putting water on the fire, the fire is going to continue to grow. Forestry should have a helicopter here shortly. So, just keep your eyes peeled for that. >> Alberta Forestry has sent air support to pinpoint the exact location of the fire. >> Anytime you're going to deal with a wildland fire, you're multi- agency. So, you know, I want to make sure that I'm talking to the folks from forestry. So, we want to make sure that we're heavy on air resources and we want to make sure that we have the right ground resources. Helicopters are the best aircraft for wildfire reconnaissance because they can move around slowly or hover over a spot. and helicopters carrying water tanks or buckets can attack wildfires in remote and rugged terrains inaccessible to ground crews. For large wildfires, air tankers drop retardants directly onto the fire to reduce or redirect the flames and cool the hot spots. Air tankers and helicopters alone don't put out fires. They're part of an overall attack strategy to control the fire and protect the ground crews as they fight the blaze. >> Found it. >> The helicopter pilot has found the fire and moves in for the kill. We get out on a big forest fire and there's all kinds of planes and helicopters and we call that aluminum overcast. If you get out on a fire and it's aluminum overcast, it means that we got a lot of lot of help and a lot of equipment helping us out. Depending on their size, helicopters can carry buckets with a capacity of almost 9500 L of water. Enough to get this fire under control. Forestry will take it from here and make sure the fire doesn't reignite. 287 km southwest of Slave Lake in Edson, the wildfire season signals the beginning of spring. When the local population doubles in size for the first responders, more people means more traffic accidents and more 911 calls. That's why Chief Albert Barry wants his firefighters trained and ready to go. >> The plan of attack is preparedness. Make sure everybody's prepared. Make sure our equipment's prepared. Make sure our dispatch center is prepared so when those multiple calls come in, they can get them out to us as quick as possible. >> Get in behind her and get your hand here to help her. Help her control a hose. For this training session on how to attack a car fire, Chief relies on one of his most trusted veteran firefighters. >> Try to get a little bit narrower fog, then you can get lower down and push a little bit more. >> Lieutenant Gabby Sunstrom is only 28 years old, but she's already been in the fire department for more than 7 years. >> So, your whole job here is to try to capture the flame. Gabby knows you can never train too much for a job that can kill you or kill a fellow firefighter working next to you. >> We need to make sure that we're up on those skills that we can have the confidence in the people that we work with to get the job done. >> They good, Gabby? >> Yeah, we're good. >> Single vehicle NBC Highway 16. Received a few calls on it now. Um, first caller said the man could possibly have a broken back, laying on the ground, head bleeding. >> It's an MVC, a motor vehicle collision, and it sounds like a bad one. >> We're going to a single vehicle NVC uh with injuries, and that's all that we know right now. >> After dispatch announces a call, Yellowhead County firefighters are required to suit up and get on the road in 90 seconds. If we have people involved, time is very, very crucial for us. The more time that we can cut down, the more effective we can be once we get to the call. >> Even seconds can save lives. >> Come on. >> Thank you. >> It's a 15-minute drive to the scene of the accident. >> This guy's down below. >> Gabby's boss, Chief Albert Barry, can't get to the scene fast enough. The one thing that's out there that really causes us some major grief is what I call stupidity. I don't know how else to describe it. We'll be driving down a highway, light siren. You can't miss our vehicles coming. You can't miss the police cars. You can't miss the ambulances. People won't pull over. It's just unexplainable, but it happens every day. >> It's a rollover. >> Driving on. >> The truck and the trailer are a total loss, and there's no telling how badly injured its occupants are. Looks like they're out of the vehicle though, guys. So, >> heavy damage the truck. Four patients inside, hit the shoulder, didn't have their seat belts on, and rolled over. >> A pickup truck towing a camper at 100 km an hour, drifted onto the shoulder, and lost control. The truck rolled over and the camper disintegrated. Four passengers were thrown from the vehicle and one is seriously injured. >> Back his head on the roof. He held on the bottom of the seat. The seat bel. >> This patient has sustained a head injury and needs to be transported to a hospital. As with all head and neck injuries, this man will have to be secured onto a backboard before he's moved. While EMS secures the patient, Gabby conducts an assessment interview with a second patient with visible injuries. >> How's your pain doing right now? >> Kind of the same. >> Yeah. >> In talking to him, I'll ask like, "What's your name? What's your age? Can you tell me what happened?" That kind of helps me assess what we say their level of consciousness. >> And this patient's assessment indicates that his injuries are minor. >> Any dizziness or anything? You see the damage to some vehicles and you don't understand how people get away with what they get, you know, scrapes, bumps, and bruises. Seat belts really do save lives. I've been to a couple calls where all the difference of being alive or dead would have been a seat belt. >> Secured on a backboard, EMS and firefighters carry this patient to the ambulance. >> And for the firefighters, this job is done. >> Dispatch on fire. And just in time for the next call. >> Go ahead. >> Without missing a beat, Albert switches gears. >> Looks like a shot fully installed wall down. >> Uh, it's calling it a structure fire. Small oak building residential stop >> from one end to the other. Crossing Yellowhead County is a 2 and 1/2 hour drive. This structure fire is only 60 km away, but Albert knows it doesn't take long for a fire to do a lot of damage. The size of Yellowhead County makes things difficult. It It's stressful in the sense that you want to be there, but it takes a long time to get there. >> The longer the drive, the bigger the fire. Chief Barry reaches the location of a structure fire. >> Dispatch one. >> His deputy chief Cory Chegwin is already on scene. >> Just a residential shop. >> Yeah, you got a woodworking shop and like a summer kitchen in there. The frame of it all up with the walls are burned out. They arrived too late to save the shop, but they did contain the fire and prevented it from spreading to the brush or trees. >> The roof caught fire and it rapidly advanced. They put a quick smack of water on it and uh fire went out pretty quick and uh we went into mop up right away. >> This fire started in a chimney when carbon deposits left by smoke from a wood stove accumulated and ignited. In North America, chimney fires account for over 25,000 fires a year. And most of those fires can be prevented with regular chimney cleaning and maintenance. Smoke from burning wood or coal leaves a carbon residue on the chimney walls. Left to accumulate, the flammable residue grows and gradually transforms into a dangerous fire hazard. >> It may be something that's occurred over the years. It was just a ticking time bomb that all of a sudden, bam, the conditions were right. Ignition and building caught on fire. >> And the owner can't believe how quickly the fire tore through his workshop. >> I was hearing bunch of crinkling and that I figured that's my uh fireplace. And then I like looked up and um I saw the fire in my roof. Called the fire department and uh by the time I was off the phone, the building was gone. The owner lost his workshop, but luckily he still got a place to sleep tonight. >> I was still around, so I kept it away from coming anywhere closer to the house, but uh I was worried about the trees here. There is a lot of them. >> This fire could have been a lot worse. >> It had the potential to be very, very bad in the sense that where it was built, it was kind of nestled in a stand of trees. If we'd had a little bit more dry condition, we'd have had a major woods fire going on on that day. And just luckily enough for us, the speed at which the crews got there and the way they attacked it shut down that from advancing anywhere. >> So, we can start packing our gear up and >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah, >> perfect. We'll be on our way. [Music] 287 km north in Slave Lake, warmer spring weather brings more than wildfires. The ice on Slave Lake has thawed. And with so many people in boats on a body of water 20 times the size of Manhattan, boating accidents are bound to happen. >> Lesser Slave Lake, it's big. And the biggest risk after the size is how fast it can get whipped up. You know, some storm kind of blows down the valley and hits that lake. You could go from no waves to 4ft waves, kind of waves that swamp boats. It's like being out in the middle of the ocean. And in the busy summer season, when recreational boat owners run into trouble, the Slave Lake first responders are among the first to get the call. A boater just called in to report a cap-sized boat in the middle of the lake. >> There's a boat upside down on the north side of the lake. Uh it's all pouring out. >> Chief's son Ryan Coots heads the water rescue team and his team understands the need for speed. [Music] >> Boat tipped over. Time is always the enemy for us. You know, if your brain starts to die four minutes after you go under the water, that means that we got less than four minutes. We don't have time to mess around. >> So, we don't know who you're looking for, but that's what they found. A capsized boat. Lieutenant Patrick McConnell will lead the search along the beach looking for anyone or anything that might have come ashore. >> This is out there and we don't know where the people are. So, I'm going to get the force you guys to kind of start from there and go north. And if I'll get you guys to go there and go south. >> Let's go, guys. >> The search and rescue or S is made up of around 50 trained local volunteers, the first to respond when duty calls. >> Have you seen anybody from the shore at all? >> Uh, no. These are your belongings up here. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I appreciate it. >> Meanwhile, another team will search the waters along the shoreline in a portable rescue boat, which they've been trained to assemble, inflate, and launch in under 10 minutes. >> 200 m offshore only the beach area cuz it's rough as hell out there. >> By now, over 20 first responders have joined the search. Just looking for anybody that might be in the water from that boat. Right. So, right now we have our boat out there. A couple of our firefighters boats are out there as well. RCMP boats out. Parks have just launched theirs. Another firefighter boat just launching. Hopefully, if there's anybody in there, they're wearing life jackets and they'll float right to shore. >> Starting everyone thinks that you can see everybody for a kilometer or two and you can't. You know, all it takes is this much of a wave and your head disappears. pull up around it. We're just to that side. >> We're just pulling up to the boat right now. >> Found. >> There's a tipped over boat in the lake and nobody's around. Like, are those people drowned? Did they make it back to shore? Where are these people? [Music] If they're still alive, finding them in this big lake will take more than skill and training. It'll take a lot of luck. >> They're either bobbing around somewhere still or, you know, worst case scenario that they drown. >> The emergency triggers a full-blown search and rescue operation. >> Rescue boat here to hook up with RCMP boat and you guys will do unified command. about it. >> Whenever there's a call for a missing person, it's RCMP's responsibility to investigate. With a lake of this size, it will take a team effort. >> We're going to meet up with everyone here and get a plan going as to where we're going to start searching. >> Ryan relays search instructions to the team of volunteers. >> I'm going to get you guys to start checking over here because the wind's coming straight this way, right? The first group of volunteers will follow the direction of the waves towards the Devonshshire Beach. >> I'm doing a a zigzag rig pattern based on the wind. So my uh team desk is what we call breadcrumbs so I can tell exactly what to search >> without recognizable landmarks to orient them. Search and rescue teams need to establish a search pattern to avoid searching the same area twice. Using GPS navigation that leads a digital trail, first responders can comb the waters in an efficient zigzag pattern. >> You have to make that pattern so that when you're going back and forth, you don't miss somebody by 100 ft or by 10 ft. >> After a thorough search on the water produces no sign of any boers, the team prepares for another kind of search below the surface. >> The RCMP are doing the 360 sonar right now. Fearing the worst, the RCMP begins to sweep the bottom of the lake for victims. As time passes, neither the RCMP sonar nor the S crew have produced any results. >> Yeah, you got there >> until unexpected news comes over the radio. All boats. >> RCMP confirmed that the occupants of the boat are on shore. >> Search is called off. >> Nobody got hurt. The wind grabbed the boat, pushed it way out to the middle of the lake where it got swamped and everyone was safe on shore. >> Awesome. That's good news. >> The adrenaline runs just to get out there and then it's a woohoo. But it's good. >> Sar more times than not get stood down in the first few minutes. Right. That's the prime time to have a successful search anyway. So whether you find them or they never really were missing, but until you know, you got to go. >> Until you know, you've got to go. >> It's a firefighter motto and a year round game plan and never more pertinent than during the wildfire season. With over 10,000 square kilometers of woodlands to protect, the Lesser Slave Regional Fire Service depends on its five halls and over 100 dedicated volunteers to remain on high alert throughout the wildfire season. In the most remote community of Flatbush, a team of volunteer firefighters with support from forestry are still trying to contain a 2acre wildland fire. >> Ricky Ricky, >> good. How are you? better than you. >> Lieutenant Patrick McConnell and his crew are here to help finish the job. >> Crazy, eh? You just burning garbage or not? >> The fire started months ago when a farmer burned a pile of garbage. Not an uncommon practice in these rural areas. >> That was a holdover fire from, I believe, January he said he lit that one. I mean, January to May, that's a long time for garbage to smolder under the snow. A holdover fire is one that lays dormant for a considerable period of time. Slow burning embers hidden below the surface can hibernate through an entire winter. As seasons change and warmer weather arrives, all it takes is dry and or windy conditions to reactivate the embers and create a full-blown blaze. It's a crazy thing, but you know, it just finds a little bit of dry soil and nutrients to hold on to and it just keeps burning and burning in there and then when it's opportunity dry day, sparks fly and get into some trees or whatever and there's some potential for some bad stuff there. They need to make sure that this holdover fire doesn't reignite. >> There's a few spots in here. If you miss any little spot that's still burning down deep, it's just like a rekindle. Basically, it's the worst word in firefighting. You don't like to hear that something that you went to to put out reit, right? A house, a tree, anything. 122 gets here, you want to get your chainsaw. We'll cut this down and left unchecked. It could burn this out. Not everything's out. As you can see, that tree over there is still smoking. So, there's a few hot spots. Hey, bring 122 down here by the quad. We're going to run the booster line in with the foam. Copy that. Truck 122 is the perfect vehicle for the job. We have the high-pressure reel on the side of 122, so it's nice to dig down deep into the ground and put lots of water down deep. This combination of water and uh and foam. Foam just makes it so that uh the moisture stays a little bit longer. It sits on top and keeps everything nice and wet and suffocates any fire that's left as well. >> They'll need to cut down any tree that is smoldering or dead to make sure it's not harboring any fugitive embers. >> There's smoke right here. >> Okay, we're uh we're loaded up. You guys are heading out. >> Different conditions for her. She doesn't have a helicopter or two on today. This wouldn't have got caught as fast as it did, that's for sure. >> Grand dispatch 451 leaving scene. >> Home time. Head home. Fuel up. Water up. Get ready for the next one. >> Good to go. Good to go. We got her. We got her. Adapt and overcome, baby. [Music] >> Slay Fire Department report. Fireh hall. There is a motor vehicle collision highway 2. The vehicle went into the ditch and the driver is out of vehicle. >> A call has just come in for a semi-truck rollover. The kind of accident that usually means serious injuries. >> Don't know the condition of the driver. Unknown injuries. >> Most 911 calls involve some kind of medical issue. >> So, Adam, you'll be right to the driver there, eh? >> Yes, sir. Like all firefighters, Adam Shirley has basic first aid training. You >> know, so if I get there and that person needs medical attention, that takes all my attention. But if I take someone with me, that person can get tied in with the patient and I can still run the scene. >> And this scene doesn't look good. >> Whoa. >> The semi rolled over and splintered apart along the side of the highway. The driver's condition could be serious. >> So looks like there's the driver, Adam, right there. So get after it 161 is on scene. >> How you doing, man? >> The driver managed to crawl out of the wreck and made it to the side of the road. >> You got a bump and a bruise there. Yeah. >> He's in rough shape, but still conscious. >> Take a deep breath there, buddy. In rural areas where ambulances can take up to 30 minutes to arrive, firefighters like Adam and Patrick often perform the roles of a medical first responder, beginning with an assessment of the patient. >> You want to always look for any like major cuts or bleeds or anything that you can kind of see. >> Know what happened here? How's your head? I got a cut here where it hurts right around here. >> I worked in the oil field for a few years, so I know those guys are hard work and there's a lot of dangers to go with that job. Especially driving is one of the biggest ones. Whether he's loaded with casing or empty, it doesn't matter. Driving on the highway is pretty dangerous. >> While Adam and Patrick take care of the victim. >> That is not good. >> Chief Coot surveys the scene. >> It's actually unbelievable that he even survived this. >> Man, this should be a horror story. >> On this stretch of highway, Jaime responds to between 20 and 30 calls every year. Unfortunately, accidents like these are all too common. Semi-rollovers often happen when truckers over steer or fail to adjust their speed on a curve in the road or drift onto a soft shoulder. In North America, rollovers result in over 3,000 trucker injuries a year. >> Ambulance is coming. >> With the ambulance on scene, they can focus on getting this patient safely to the hospital. Firefighters and paramedics will need to work as a team. >> Okay, we'll get on the board. So, I think the best way to turn him would probably be this way. Okay. >> Yeah. That's >> to avoid spinal injuries, they'll work in unison, rolling him over, holding his head, neck, and body. >> You guys ready? >> It's okay. >> Yeah, you got it. All right. One, two, three. >> You got it. >> Okay, you guys ready? Down there. >> Okay, up on three. One, two, three. >> I can't believe he walked away from it the way he did. He's pretty lucky to crawl out on his own, let alone walk away with what I thought was pretty minor injuries for that severe of an accident. >> Good luck, man. >> From firefighter to paramedic to search and rescue in this region of Alberta, first responders have to be trained and ready for every kind of emergency, big or small, that comes their way. And now more than ever, that includes the wildfire season. Today, Patrick and rookie Logan Skull are off-roading. Destination, a remote fire tower where generations of spotters once scanned the treetops for the telltale smoke signals of a wildfire. Oh, we're up at Grizzly Tower. So, there used to be someone that was stationed here during the wildfire season, right? During high hazard days, they'd have to be up here watching the landscape looking for smoke. Fire towers have long been a first line of defense in spotting wildfires, and new technologies are helping in the fight. Today, Earth observing satellites keep a lookout for flames and smoke. Sensitive lightning detection systems track and triangulate the location of lightning up to a 400 km radius. [Music] Air patrols can survey 10 times the area visible from a conventional fire tower. And as Alberta communities continue to expand into regions of the boreal forest where fire plays a natural part of the forest life cycle, Chief Jamie Coots and his firefighters remain on the alert for the next season of wildfires. Fire is becoming a it's a bigger piece of the urban interface [Music] as we push our houses out into the forest everywhere in North America. Fire is fighting back. The forest is fighting back. So we have to be ready for that. [Music] [Music]