Reading and watching on TV some of the forest fires in BC I do wonder what would make anyone become a firefighter especially in the forests. No arriving on a fancy truck with lights flashing and sirens going, just mostly get dropped of with a few others, with your equipment. There are some who jump from helicopters in the middle of no where and have very little if any ground support. You have to deal with all kinds of terrain and conditions and its hot, hard and dirty work.

I thought about a client of mine who did this when he was a student, at UBC, for a summer job, when he told me about it and some of the things you have to do out there it really makes me appreciate these people. He told me about getting out of the way of the water bombers, because the weight of the water, if it hits you, can kill you.

I think though the most impressive thing he told me was running through trees when the fire was crowing faster then he could run. Crowning is when the fire moves through the forest from tree top to tree top, in this case the fire passed him and he was literally running for his life. He made it and went on to become an Architect.

So if you are having a bad day at work just give a thought to the forest fire fighters and you’ll realize you have it easy at least there is probably no possibility of dying on the job.