If you haven’t yet read part one of this story, you can read it here. This is going to be a little longer of a story than I would normally like, but I can’t bring myself to shorten it without taking away from it, so I hope you’ll indulge me.

Let’s pick it up on September 11^th of last year. I was still upset about having to give up my spot in the park to someone else. I just wanted to be up there ready to face the fire that was almost certainly coming.

Things were hot and dry at home too though and our fire department had been to several calls that week. We had just returned from a grass fire that day when my Chief informed us the Kenow fire had entered the park and they were predicting that it would reach the townsite that night. He asked me to come up to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) that had been set up to meet with County leaders other Fire Chiefs and Emergency Planners to try to plan our strategy for the coming days. It was almost the worst possible situation. Hot, dry, and high winds were pushing the fire right toward the townsite. Once the fire had crossed the continental divide and entered the park it picked up speed. It was moving down the Akamina Valley at 70-100 meters a minute. That is roughly a football field a minute with flames two to three hundred feet above the tops of the trees at times. If it continued at that speed it would reach the townsite in one to two hours, and three hours after that it could be leaving the park. So we talked about evacuation plans and triggers, how we would notify everyone, and where they could go. Where we would set up support personnel and resources, and where we might put firebreaks to keep the fire from spreading. All the while we continued getting updates from the Park. I say “we” because I was there and participating, but I don’t want this to seem like I played a huge part. I was just there to help, offer my own limited suggestions and ideas, and try to mentally prepare myself. You see, the other officers on our department also work for Alberta Health Services as Paramedics, and that night all of them were either working or were not around. So I was it. Our Chief would have to stay up at the EOC to coordinate the efforts making me the only officer available. I had never faced a fire this big, let alone led an attack of this scale. So I was just trying to keep it together and think through everything that was happening around me.

After a few hours of planning and discussion, we received a welcome update. Thanks to the temperatures dropping that night it seemed the fire was slowing down and even appeared to be stalled in the valley. The new estimates were that the fire would not reach the Waterton townsite until sometime the next morning, and then we would still have time to prepare for the possibility that their efforts would not be enough to stop it from burning past the townsite. We finished up with our plans and made sure that we were as ready as we could be for the next day. Everyone had an assignment to carry out. I decided to go home and get some sleep so I could go out early the next morning to confirm our staging areas and potential fire break locations in person.

As I was driving home I got a call from the Chief to come back up to the EOC. My stomach tied up in a knot. This couldn’t be a good sign. When I got there my Chief said that they had just received word that the fire had surprised them. It had spread into the red rock valley to the north and roared out of the mountains past the townsite. The thick smoke had prevented them from seeing its rapid spread down this second valley. As a result, it was already burning along the road that was the only escape route from the townsite and it had already left the park. Then he said three words I will never forget, “You go NOW!”.

I drove straight from there to the fire hall. As people started to arrive I gave them a quick update and started assigning people to trucks. We drove towards the park into a cloud of smoke as thick as I have ever seen. I had a prayer in my heart for that whole drive. A prayer to keep my brothers and me safe. A prayer to keep those whose homes and property and loved ones were in the path of this beast, safe. A prayer for my friends who were in the Waterton townsite waiting for the fire to arrive there. Behind all the “little” prayers in my heart, there was one mighty prayer being screamed out. HELP! Don’t get me wrong I was excited, but this was different. I was in command. I wasn’t going to be the guy on the end of a hose fighting, I was going to be the guy coordinating everything and trying to make sure everyone went home safe in the end. I would have much rather been on a hose.

As we got closer we could see the orange glow from the fire ahead and embers blowing past us in the smoke. There was no way to know exactly what we were driving into, but I knew it was bigger than anything I had faced before. When we reached our staging point I radioed to the other units telling them to hold position there while we went in to try to see what we were up against and decide on a game plan. We drove down the highway and turned down a gravel road near Angels Landing. We then turned down a second road that lead toward the first home that was in the path of the fire. The visibility was extremely low, the glow from the flames grew brighter and embers were blowing all around us now. I couldn’t keep going. The conditions were terrible and we were driving blind. We could hardly see the ditch on either side of the road. I needed to find out where this fire was. We needed to turn the truck around so one of the firefighters jumped out to help us maneuver on the narrow road without going into the ditch. We were backing up and had the truck turned 90 degrees to the road when I saw the fire through the smoke out the window to my right. It came up out of the ditch like a wave and rolled over the road like a river of fire. Right where we had been headed. I rolled down the window to yell to the firefighter to get back in the truck and got hit with a wall of heat coming through the window. He jumped back in and we spun tires getting out of there. After that, we returned to the highway and drove west trying to skirt the edge of the fire and find a place where we could begin an attack. We drove to where the Chief Mountain Highway turns off and stopped to look around. I wish I had a picture to show you what I saw. I couldn’t see into the park at all. I looked North at the landscape and the best description I can give you is… Hell. Everything I could see north of the highway was on fire. EVERYTHING. Fire leaping from treetops. Hot embers blowing in the wind like fireflies and flames moving rapidly towards the northeast. We turned around and headed back to the staging area.

I was met by an eager group of firefighters, ready to go, asking where we should start. My heart sank. I told them there was nothing we could do. The fire was so hot and moving so fast I couldn’t put anyone in. Our trucks wouldn’t even be able to protect themselves. We sent out the police and a few fire trucks to make sure that everyone had been evacuated successfully. While that was happening I updated the EOC on the fire’s location and behavior. After the trucks had returned and we had confirmed that everyone was evacuated something awesome happened. The conditions started to change! The wind started to slow down and it shifted directions towards the north. The visibility improved. By that point, I had firefighters and engines from three different departments there ready to go. So we went to work. Those brave men fought all night and by early the next morning, we had stopped the fire from spreading any farther east. We had been able to save all the homes in our county except that first one that we tried to get to but couldn’t reach. The fire had been burning since August 30th but on that night it quadrupled in size and burned across approximately 24 km (15 miles) in less than 24 hours. To put that in perspective if the fire had started on the edge of the City of Calgary it would have burned from one side of the city to the other in a single day. 35,000 hectares burned (85,000 acres) in total. The size of the fire is not uncommon for forest fires, but the speed that the fire spread has set a new precedent in Canada.

The next day, September 12th, was my birthday. We kept working. I drove up the Chief Mountain Highway to get an idea of where things were at and where we needed to focus that day. I could see smoke coming from spots that were still burning or smoldering but it looked like the worst was over. We worked the rest of that day making sure that the fire didn’t spread any further, and doing work in the burned out zone to put out hot spots and problem areas.

By the time that day ended I had been awake for 35 hours with only a half-hour power nap to keep me going. Crews worked for two more days before we felt confident enough to scale down our operations. I have never been so scared as I was that first night. Not for my own life, but for the lives of the men I was asking to drive into the fire to fight it. Every time their tail lights drove away into the smoke or went over a hill to do what needed to be done, I had to sit back in my command post and pray and work as best I knew how to make sure they were safe. I am so grateful for all those firefighters. They will always have a special place in my heart. I felt like I was trying to swim through rapids for most of those 35 hours, but their bravery, hard work, and council helped me to do what I needed to do. To everyone else who offered support or prayed for us that night, I hope you know how much that meant to me and to all of us.

If I had been in Waterton that day, I would have missed out on that experience. It was terrible and exciting and awesome all at the same time. I can tell you I was definitely not the best man for the job but I wouldn’t trade that night for anything.

Sometimes trusting in the Lord is easy. We go to church, we say our prayers, and we live our lives like we normally do. But then there are those days when the Lord will say to you, “you go NOW!” and everything goes sideways. Maybe it is a new calling that we feel inadequate for. Maybe it is a call from a friend or family member who is seriously sick or injured and needs a blessing. Maybe worse. There will be times when we suddenly come face to face with the toughest moments of our lives. Those moments don’t wait for us to be ready for them. Just like firefighters we need to train our spirits to be ready for those moments. We need to be worthy so we can call down the powers of heaven in our behalf. We don’t need to be perfect, we don’t need to be the best man or woman for the job. We just need Him.

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.
Ether 12:27

You may be like me, walking forward without a clue, but His promises are sure, and His grace is sufficient not just to get us through it, but to make our weakness into our strength. You will feel yourself changing. Sometimes you will even see the conditions change to make the impossible become possible. If you ever feel like you just can’t do it, you are dead wrong! And don’t let yourself be fooled into doing just enough to squeak by. Magnify that calling, pronounce that blessing, follow those promptings. Trust in Him, let Him make your weakness into strength, and go out there and CRUSH IT!