John Salewski is the Quesnel zone wildfire officer, overseeing the day-to-day operations and long-term planning for the Quesnel Fire Centre.
"I'm a second-generation forest service brat," Salewski joked. "My dad did this for 30 years in Vanderhoof."
Salewski's intent was to be part of the BC Wildfire Service through summers to pay his way through university, but said the team he had the chance to work with made him want to stay on.
"We have a lot of English majors and teachers and stuff in this business because we start this to pay for university and we fall in love with the team," he said. "The team is what it is, just the people. It's the camaraderie. The people that do this don't do it for the money, they do it because they're passionate."
Salewski said that working in wildfire fighting allows people to see the whole province and country and sometimes travel abroad to fight fires in other countries.
"The food sucks, tenting sucks, the mosquitoes suck, the smoke sucks, the heat sucks, the cold sucks. There's a lot of things to not like about the job but by the end of the day, every one of us is addicted to it," he said. For Salewski, the most rewarding part of the job is working with his team. "That's why I come to work every day, it's the people. I'm at the last part of this growth where I can influence a crew member's life daily and that's pretty cool, to put a positive spin on them, on their life."
Salewski's dad started a junior initial attack program in Vanderhoof in 1996 and when Salewski took on the officer job in Quesnel, he began the high school program there.
"Having these high school students come through into this base and watching them grow up and end up running some of these crews is really cool," he said. "I've had some young folks come through and just grow up and then grow into great adults that are helping the country and the province and I'm proud to see those people turn from young, big-eyed high school students to successful adults. Those are the moments that make me proud."
Outside of fire season, Salewski prepares for the next fire season. He builds relationships with communities around the region, everyone from RCMP to Barkerville, to First Nations, to industry like Barkerville Gold and West Fraser.
"We exchange business cards when there's no smoke in the air because exchanging business cards with smoke in the air is not optimal," he said.
That work includes preparing for how to use different areas if wildfire crews need to go to them. Salewski said that communication covers everything from where they can stage crews to how many wildfire fighters can be fed in different areas and what camps and structures will still be there for the next fire season.
"We have such a great relationship with all our outlying communities and resorts, it's really pretty pain-free for me."
But when smoke is in the air, that's when the job gets more difficult for wildfire fighters. The conditions are hard and Salewski said keeping a sense of humour is important.
"It's really sad to see the damage of the change in the environment, these wildfires are bigger and impacting more people so it takes a toll on us. It's not that one trauma, it's that death of a thousand cuts," he said. "We see so much, so many people losing their livelihoods, it gets on a person."
In spite of that, Salewski said the fire centre has very little turnover and people who are part of the team tend to want to stay.
The retention of this zone is phenomenal and it's breaking provincial stats. We had one person injured last year so we hired one new person," he said. "With the high school program, we just have plugged the hole of this retention problem."
Salewski has also been instrumental in growing the base of the Quesnel Fire Centre near the airport.
"This warehouse has expanded, our office footprint has expanded. Everything is expanded around this place to meet the need to I'm pretty proud of all the emails and pounding of tables and persuasion," he said.
Salewski said when he was rebased to Quesnel in 2003, he fell in love with the town.
"I think the community spirit of this town is amazing. All the people in leadership roles I enjoy. I deal with a lot of leadership with RCMP and the fire departments and they're just great community members," Salewski said. "All the industry that helps us in the wildfire season, I see them at Save On, I see them at Granvilles and we just have a great relationship. This town is just a really fun, happy, honest, hard-working town. Salt of the Earth people in this town, I really like it."
Ahead of fire season, Salewski recommends people FireSmart their homes, have emergency contacts, know escape routes and ensure you have an emergency kit ready in case you need to evacuate.
"FireSmart your house please. Please FireSmart your house. That is the best tool in the toolbox that any homeowner can do," he said. "It's not the fire's flame front, it's the embers in front of it that'll bring your home down most of the time."
People can find information on how to FireSmart their homes at FireSmartBC.ca.
"Some people they grabbed their bear rug and a bag of candy and then the lady's like 'why did I do that?' When you're panicking, you're gonna grab stuff you don't need and you're gonna forget the stuff you do need. Be prepared as best you can," he said.
He also strongly advised people follow restrictions on fires when they go in place.
