Quebec and Ontario Wild Fires

I took the summer off to join the “Helicopter Groupie” road trip!  As I never get to see Aaron anymore, I figured this would be a great chance to escape the Arizona heat and spend some time with Big A as they had a power line pole job in Parry Sound, Ontario.  We left at the end of June together and had about a week in Parry Sound at the Grand Tappattoo Resort on standby and were able to catch one baseball game in Toronto with the crew before the fire season went absolutely nuts. 

This picture below needs a quick explanation.  After work we usually all went out to go to dinner and enjoy the local restaurants of Parry Sound.  Evidently Billy Baldwin was in town filming a movie and happened to be at the same restaurant as us.  I wasn’t in a position that I could see him, so I asked Aaron to sneak a picture for me so I could check him out….and yes…eventually brag that I got to see Billy Baldwin in person….and this is what I got…..I think Aaron did it on purpose….as he could care less lol!!!  Nonetheless, once he got up and left, he had to walk right past us to leave…so I did really see him and yes it was him…but we have to laugh at this barely visible half head shot that Aaron took.  The first call came in around 5 PM and they needed us on a fire in Quebec…about a 7 hour flight away.  Well, with no time to spare, we hurriedly raced to the aircraft (luckily we had it all loaded and gassed up the day before as we thought we were headed to another fire earlier in the week) and headed to HeliCarrier headquarters in Quebec as that was as far as we could make it given the time of day.  We stayed the night there and then blasted off early in the morning to get headed to Forestville, Quebec.  Once we crossed the border…nothing but French, luckily the other machine was also on the same fire so we swapped one French speaking pilot for one non-speaking pilot and away we went! 

We stayed in Quebec for about 6 days or so before getting called to another fire in Ontario.  I hate to say it…but we were all ready to leave the Province as our French wasn’t getting any better, nor was their English…so off we went to North Bay, Ontario where we would stay for about a week working hard on the North Bay Sector 2b Fire before getting relocated to Earlton, Ontario on the Lady Evelyn Park Complex Fire. 

Once in Earlton, “fire camp” operations were in full effect….3 square meals a day, a dining area, washrooms, laundry facilities….life was good!  We had a mini Molson Air Reunion as Darren Davies, Mike Woodcock, Jason Beaton, Aaron and myself were all there working on the fire…so it was great to see familiar faces and all work together. 

After almost a week or so on that fire, we got relocated to Britt, Ontario….out in the middle of NOWHERE on the Parry Sound 33 Fire!  They basically took a 2 acre parcel from a local farmer….told him to cut down the weeds, and then put about 15 helicopters on his land….which, 15 helicopters and that tiny area is nuts!  I guess they do things a little different in Canada eh! Stu Wild, another Molson Air employee joined our group there. Nonetheless, we worked out of there for almost a week before Alberta called in need of choppers….so after a 15 hour ferry flight….Rocky Mountain House….here we come…ready to bucket!