Our Respects for Wildland Firefighters Who Have Died

Left to right:  Devyn Gale,  Adam Yeadon,  Ryan Gould,  Zachery Freeman Muise.

Tragically, four workers have died in Canada while fighting wildfires since July 13, 2023.

Devyn Gale of Revelstoke BC was struck and killed by a tree while battling a fire near Revelstoke on July 13. Devyn was a nineteen year old nursing student at UBC's Okanagan campus, working her third season fighting wildfires. Devyn was a member of the British Columbia General Employees' Union (BCGEU).

Twenty-five year old Adam Yeadon from Fort Liard NWT was fatally injured on July 15 while fighting fires near Fort Liard. Adam was a member of the Acho Dene Koe First Nation. Adam's death was the first fatality of a wild fire fighter since 1971 in the NWT. He had been a wildland firefighter for several years. He was a member of the Union of Northern Workers Local 13, a component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC).

Days later on July 19, Ryan Gould, a 41 year-old helicopter pilot, died after his helicopter crashed while he was delivering water to a wildfire near Haig Lake, east of the town of Manning in the Peace River region of Alberta. Gould was a skilled pilot who had been fighting wildfires for around 20 years.

Zachery Freeman Muise, a 25 year old firefighter from Waterford, Ontario was killed while battling a wildfire in a remote area north of Fort St. John on July 28. He died when the UTV he was riding rolled over a steep drop on a gravel road.

Workers' Forum sends sincere condolences to the families, co-workers and friends of Devyn Gale, Adam Yeadon, Ryan Gould, and Zachery Freeman Muise. They show what the workers, youth and Indigenous Peoples are made of, and the urgency to protect those who are working in dangerous conditions in this unprecedented fire season.

The media and government officials acknowledge the risks workers face when fighting wildfires and that it is a dangerous occupation, and how the firefighters who lost their lives loved their work, and knew just how important it is. At the same time, the media speaks in a manner to suggest that they knew the risks they were taking and that this is "just part of the job." This cannot be accepted. The conditions under which the firefighters are working are extremely dangerous, that is a fact, but they are made all the more dangerous by the lack of experienced firefighters as a result of cutbacks to public services.

Paying tribute to those who lost their lives requires action to prevent more such deaths. The firefighters and the unions that represent them, the Indigenous Peoples with millennia of experience with fire in the forest, the scientists who are speaking out about the reality of 21st century fires in the boreal forest all understand the conditions and that the human factor in the form of the mobilization of all the resources available to society must be brought to bear. These are the people who must be entrusted with the decisive say in what is needed. They must be provided with the working and living conditions required for the services they provide.

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This article was published in

Number 46 - August 23, 2023

Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2023/Articles/WO10462.HTM

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