‘You don’t see fires like this in Nova Scotia’

Exhausted firefighter talks about battle

He fought a fierce battle over a family home and won. But barely, and among so many losses.

Exhausted and emotional, volunteer firefighter Capt. Brett Tetanish spoke to reporters at the command centre set up at the St. Margaret’s Centre for the Upper Tantallon wildfire on Monday morning about battling a historically destructive wildfire.

“It was a good feeling that we were able to save, sorry ... ” said Tetanish, needing a moment as a tear carved a path through the dirt on his face. “... To save somebody’s house after so, so much destruction.”

Tetanish is with the volunteer fire service in Brooklyn which was among several crews called in to help. They had three other fires to deal with before they were called in on Sunday, he said.

“This the worst fire I’ve ever been on,” he said. “I’ve been on other large fires in Nova Scotia, Porters Lake, we lost structures there, but you don’t see fires like this in Nova Scotia. You see these in Alberta.

“Driving in last night, it was just surreal. We’re driving on Hammonds Plains Road with fire on both sides of the road, structures on fire, cars abandoned and burnt in the middle of the road.”

Tetanish has been a volunteer firefighter for 32 years. He’s an electrician by trade but he said sometimes it feels like firefighting is the full-time job “and it’s sometimes nice to go to work on Monday to get a break from the fires.”

When they arrived in Upper Tantallon on Sunday evening, their first assignment was to patrol nearby roads and protect what houses they could. That’s when they noticed the fire had reached a home. They got to work to save it and called out for help.

“Once the help arrived, we quickly knocked the fire down from the exterior and as we had more personnel on scene, we entered the structure,” he said.

CREW SAFETY

It’s tough to decide when to take on the battle for a home, and when they have to let it go. Tetanish said the safety of his crew is the top priority.

“If we feel we can safely do that job, then we’ll try. We will. We were successful last night with a certain structure,” he said.

Thinking of the wins and losses the next day, it’s an emotional rollercoaster, he said.

“You’ve got the highs because of the ones you were able to make a difference for,” he said, needing another moment to work through the emotion. “But I have a home to go to and there’s a lot of people that don’t.”

Halifax Fire Deputy Chief Dave Meldrum said the biggest victories fighting this blaze have been when the firefighters made a choice to protect a property and it worked.

“For them, the point of pride is in doing that, and they also suffer the emotion of when they try their very best in conditions that are just untenable for structural firefighters that force them to leave,” Meldrum said. “Both have happened — they’ve saved people, they’ve saved properties over the past couple of days and other properties have been lost to fire.”

When asked if he had a message for the residents of this area, Tetanish said “I’m sorry for those who have lost their homes, most sincere condolences. It’s heartbreaking and we try but we can’t save them all.”

Outside the command centre, tired crews were taking a break, checking their phones and resting their legs.

“I’m just exhausted. I don’t even know how to explain,” Tetanish said, looking forward to going home soon to get a bit of sleep. “My body is sore, I’m old, my joints are sore, my back is sore. I think the rest of my crew probably feels the same.”

But they did a great job, he added.

“We all did a great job last night and we managed to hopefully save some structures.”