Fighting Wildfires from a Health & Safety Perspective - Natasha Ouellette, Regional Wildfire Ranger - DNRE

Tune in to hear Natasha Ouellette, Regional Wildfire Ranger with the NB Dept. of Natural Resources & Energy share her knowledge and experience of fighting wildfires from a health and safety perspective.

Transcript

Perley Brewer   0:12

Welcome to today's Podcast.
My name is Perley Brewer and I will be your host.
There are unique challenges when fighting large force fires, sometimes referred to as wildfires, like those we seem to say almost annually in rural locations in Alberta and British Columbia especially, and even more recently in urban locations like Los Angeles, today's podcast is going to focus on the health and safety issues around the fighting the forest fires.
Our guest today is Natasha Roulette.
Who is he?
Regional wildlife. Excuse me.
Regional wildfire Ranger with a Department of Natural Resources and Energy.
Thank you, Natasha, for agreeing to share your experience with us for someone who has actually experienced fighting forest fires.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   1:01
Thanks for having me, Perley.

Perley Brewer   1:03
So let's start a discussion that Tasha with you telling I was nervous about your background in in fighting forest fires, wildfires.
I don't know what do you prefer to call.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   1:13
Wildfires.

Perley Brewer   1:14
Wildfires.
OK, so you're back.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   1:15
Yeah.
Yes, um.
So I've been with the Department of Natural Resources now for almost a decade.
I spent the first eight years of my career down and as a forest Ranger down into the Fredericton District office and in Forest Forest Rangers, I like to call a Jack of all trades.
We do wildlife work and forestry work and wildfire work, so when it came to wildfires, I was tasked to sort of manage and respond to wildfires.
And it's really a joint effort from the the department and you know, the structural firefighters I've been mobilized out of province several times.
I've gone to Quebec and in Alberta and I've served as the firefighter of squad boss and a strike team leader so and now I'm up in the I'm a Wall, Fire Ranger.
I've sort of specialized from from being a, you know, a generalist to to just wildfire, and I work out of the provincial Wildfire Coordination Centre.

Perley Brewer   2:23
So probably about a month from now, we're gonna turn our TV's on and and we're gonna see, you know, stories about fires.
Wad fires that are starting to pop up, and as the summer goes on, we're going to see more and more of them.
And and I often ask questions, or often have questions that sort of pop up in the back of my mind about what it must be like to try and do that kind of job.
So they'll start with with some of the questions that I know I personally haven't, as I guess one of that pops up quick is why do you, what do you pack and what preparation is required for your trip?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   2:58
Yeah, that's a good question.
So, so these types I just want to kind of back it up.
So these types are requests come through ohm, they're coordinated through the Canadian Energy Interagency Force Fire Center.
So sipsey for short.
And so their roles that there are not for profit corporation that coordinates resources, resource sharing, mutual aid and information sharing among all the provinces and territories so that they manage to national picture and the international picture.
So they would typically put that request through our New Brunswick Wildfire Coordination Centre, where the province would decide, you know, whether we have the ability to put, you know, personnel or aircraft forward towards, you know, to go to, to, to Alberta or not, um and then or not.
And then it goes from there.
So one thing as her or to mention is that our four strangers, they do this on a voluntary basis when it comes to working out of the province.
So, you know, once we say yes, then then technically you have um 48 hours to sort of prepared from the moment you said. Yeah.
Yeah, I'll go to when you get on the plane and and head out to, you know, wherever that you're you're going.
There's said so.
How how do I prepare so from the moment you know, I say, yeah, I'll go get a look.
After all, your personal logistics cause this is a spur of the moment thing.
So you know what I what do I have going on in the next three weeks that a year I I can delay or or maybe I can't go because I can't miss it and sort of sort out your your personal life then I'll start gathering.
Um, sort of a a general idea of where I'm going.
Usually you'll get a request, you know, say it's Alberta.
They'll say, you know, we'll need firefighters.
OK, I'm going to Alberta, but I don't necessarily know where in Alberta I'll be going.
It's really fluid.
So you start reading the media and sort of getting a general sense of the picture.
Um, and then I'll pack my gear so we always mobilize with uh tent, sleeping bag, you know, sleeping pads, and we can, you know, camp PE and then, you know, a little bit of spare clothes.

Perley Brewer   5:31
So that's really not a lot of time to get your sort of life in order and adjust all your plans.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   5:39
No, not at all.

Perley Brewer   5:42
So what sort of reaction do you get from your your family?
Those folks around you knowing the dangers of the occupation and know all of a sudden you're gonna be off.
Or maybe you know, as you mentioned three weeks or four weeks, whatever.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   5:55
Yeah.
So my spouse is he gets a little bit annoyed.
He's like you're doing this again.
Obviously, we're well compensated, right?
So it's a one of the motivating reasons to to do it.
Um, so it's hard on them, but at the end of the day, they know like they they they like the I'm we're able to go out there and and and help out and and you know you have that sense of duty right and they're they're supportive.

Perley Brewer   6:26
So you mentioned three weeks.
Do you know when you leave how long you're gonna be away, or is there a limit put on it?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   6:32
Yeah.
So the agreement is 14 days on the line, with travel on either side, with the possibility of extending to 21 days.
But I'm we sort of moved away from that because it is just really complicated logistically and then you're getting into stress management and and then fatigue and you know all those things.
So it's we try to stick at the 14 days.

Perley Brewer   7:01
OK.
So generally speaking, you know we've had a number of folks in our Podcast talk about things like fighting fires and and normally people think of of a of a house fire.
For example, in the community, how does fighting a wildfire differ in approach, say, from fighting a a fire in a in a building here, saying the city of Fredericton or whatever?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   7:26
The can you say that again? Sorry.

Perley Brewer   7:28
So generally speaking, you know we, we we, we when we talk about fires people think of well, you know there's a house fire commercial fire here in the city locally and and there's there's approaches I'm sure that are used to fight that.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   7:38
Great.

Perley Brewer   7:43
How does fighting Awad fire difference generally in approach is a much more difficult is a more dangerous than, say, fighting a house fire.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   7:53
Great.
So I guess the the difference is that we don't, we moved away from, from fighting wildfire.
We manage manage it so and there's a variety of reasons.

Perley Brewer   8:02
OK.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   8:04
You know we're not.
There's some echolot.
Um, so we're gonna have to start over.
Um, so yeah, we managed them to for a variety of of Land Management objectives, right, so.
You know it in the boreal forest fires in Nashville, part of the ecosystem and and for years we've sort of put those fires out and and the the fuels built out.
So now we just try to.
I'll have to restart this question, Perley.
Sorry.

Perley Brewer   8:38
OK.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   8:39
Yeah.

Perley Brewer   8:39
So, OK, well, let's let's really skip over that question and we'll get Bill to edit that question.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   8:43
Yeah.

Perley Brewer   8:44
OK, from a strategic perspective, how does the central fire management group approach a fire?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   8:46
Yeah.

Perley Brewer   8:51
So.
So the central group say in Alberta, uh, they've been notified of a wildfire in a certain area.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   8:59
Hmm.

Perley Brewer   8:59
You, you, you talk about managing a fire rather than necessarily just putting it out.
What overall strategic approach would they use to deal with that fire?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   9:11
Great.
So it's always the same, right?
So you you've got your values at risk, you know preservation of life first, right?
You worried about people's properties that can and then the environment 3rd.
So and it's always the same, no matter where where the fire is.

Perley Brewer   9:29
So if it's a fire in a wilderness area versus, say, idential area, how would you approach differ?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   9:32
Hmm.
Well, you get you set this specific objectives Land Management objectives and then you've got, you know the resources that you have to to work with and you're trying to, you know, steer the fire or contain it to an area depending on what your Land Management objective is, right?
So.

Perley Brewer   9:59
Hmm.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   9:59
So that would be the difference.
We're not necessarily looking to put the fire out.
Look, um, just sort of.
I'm trying to to manage it to to meet whatever objective we've laid out.

Perley Brewer   10:13
OK.
So when we watch these shots of of the wildfires, you see the water bombers, you see the use of heavy equipment as the dozers and so on.
And then you see the individual firefighters.
What's the role of each of these?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   10:29
Yeah.
So the water bombers are used to drop water or fire retardant to sort of slow down the fire or cool it off, or or box it in the heavy equipment like bulldozers or excavators are used to create firebreaks.
We're clear vegetation to sort of limit the spread of the fire and the firefighters are the ones that are actually on the ground working to extinguish the flames that I'll be using, you know, pumps and shovels and Rakes to this sort of really worked around and get the the fire out of the ground.

Perley Brewer   11:04
So as a firefighter, what equipment?
When you're on the ground, do you carry with you each day?
And and I would assume it must weigh a fair bit.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   11:13
Yeah.
Well, it's nice you don't necessarily have a a lot of equipment, so you get your PPE.
So your nomax you know your hard hat, safety glasses, gloves.
And then it sort of dependent on on what you're doing that day.
So you have, you know, some hand tools to operate, to work with hoses.

Perley Brewer   11:29
The.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   11:29
So you might have a shovel or a Pulaski.
Or if you're a Sawyer, you'll have stuff to run a chainsaw, but and then you've got your date pack because you're on the line for a long day.
So you carry your lunch and and you know, sweater or whatever you need to to kind of weather the elements.
And that's about it.

Perley Brewer   11:54
So how long a day would you normally work?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   11:57
So through the Emirs Agreement laid out by Sissy is or a 14 hour operational period.
Ohm.
With the understanding that depending on you know the the values that are at risk, you may work longer.

Perley Brewer   12:15
OK, so so you say the values at risk, what do you mean by that?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   12:15
Or left right.
So if you've got, you know, fire encroaching onto a town.
Uh, you know where there's a lot more.

Perley Brewer   12:26
OK.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   12:32
You know, pressure to take out of control of fired and then we may end up working a longer operational period.

Perley Brewer   12:34
Hmm.
OK, so that's a pretty long day.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   12:43
It is, yeah.

Perley Brewer   12:44
Yeah.
So I guess the question, you know, people probably be thinking when they watch these shots is a All what do you eat?
Where do you sleep?
What about those kinds of things?
Everyday things that may be most of us take for granted, pretty easy to to think about, OK, you mentioned tents earlier, so where do you sleep?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   13:00
Hmm. Yes.
So that is coordinated through the incident management team.
So they've got a logistics section and and you gotta remember fairly like when we go into these areas, you know, it's an emergency for a for another jurisdiction that add to to ask for help, right?
So so the incident management team has to set up a camp that is sort of self sufficient.
And so you know, that's why we bring tents.

Perley Brewer   13:27
OK.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   13:31
So we're ready to to camp and in.
And so when I leave the province, I try to be self sufficient for the first sort of 48 to 72 hours and then with the expectation that the incident management team is gonna set up the logistics, right, so they'll set up a camp.
It's sort of a kitchen, you know, showers, those types of things.
So, um, yeah.
I've camped in in fields I've.
I've stayed in sort of those oil rig camps in, in northern Alberta.

Perley Brewer   14:01
OK.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   14:03
Sometimes you sleep in arenas.
It's just depends on on where you are and then and what the situation is.

Perley Brewer   14:10
So we all love to eat.
What kind of food do you get to eat and what's?
What's that like?
It's gotta be challenging.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   14:18
Yeah.
Yes, he chatted again to go for the high calories cause you're burning is not a calories throughout the day.
So and it also has to be something that you can pack, right?

Perley Brewer   14:30
Hmm.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   14:30
So you usually you know, they pack you sandwiches and cookies and and things like that.

Perley Brewer   14:37
So they say that they basically from what you're saying, they set up a camp like Apple sphere with kitchens and all that sort of thing.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   14:37
Yeah.

Perley Brewer   14:44
And they they look after all of that sort of thing for you?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   14:45
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you have breakfast at the camp and then you'll be expected to pack your lunch and then supper at the camp.

Perley Brewer   14:52
Hmm.
So what's your greatest hazard that you face?
Say when you're in Alberta and you're fighting a wildfire and then you're out there doing your your daily routines, so to speak, what's it?
What's the greatest hazard that in in the back of your mind?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   15:11
Yes.
Well, I guess the greatest hazard would be to lose that situational awareness, right?

Perley Brewer   15:11
It.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   15:17
But as far as what AA Wall, land firefighter faces, you know there's always that risk of burn over or entrapment, which again stems from that lack of situational awareness.
Other hazards are, you know, heat related illnesses.
So heatstroke, heat exhaustion because it's hot when when fires, like the burn, it's hot out.
Um, smoke inhalation.
We there's a big topic of conversation in the wall and world right now.
Physical injuries, so slips, trips and falls.
Working around heavy equipment.
Danger trees.
So you know you're working around trees with the.
The roots are burnt and the um, their stabilities compromise.
That's a big one.
Exposure to hazardous materials.
So say you have a fire.
That's kind of encroached into a community now you've got all these, you know, buildings that have burnt garbage and burnt, and we don't have the any kind of respiratory protection to to deal with that.
And then you get the actual environment.
So um, you know wildlife of their grizzly bears. Wolves.
So there's there's a lot of different things to kind of look out for out there.

Perley Brewer   16:42
So it's a scariest situation you've ever found yourself in.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   16:47
So probably keep that ohm.
I guess more, more broad.
It always stands from that lack of of situational awareness or or in that day of transition, when you when you first land on an incident and you don't necessarily know the lay of the land or or you know who's working around you.
That's uncomfortable.

Perley Brewer   17:15
So have you ever found yourself in a situation you mentioned wildlife, for example, you're found yourself in a situation with bears or snakes or anything like that.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   17:25
Yep, bears are common on the line all the time.

Perley Brewer   17:28
Are they?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   17:29
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Perley Brewer   17:30
So what do you do if you encounter a bear?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   17:33
So in some jurisdictions there like what view with some bear spray or you get your whistle and you try to kind of deter them that way.

Perley Brewer   17:37
Hmm.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   17:42
But if you can't make the bear go away then, and you usually report that to the D incident command team and they'll send a wildlife officer or to deal, you know, with with the threat.

Perley Brewer   17:55
Now, do you normally work in groups or how does that work as far as?
Determining sort of where you go and how many would go to a certain area and or is there any sort of a uh process?
It says you know, you never go alone.
You always go in, in, in twos or threes.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   18:14
Yes.
So the you work with with other firefighters in, in squads, and then you're sort of sort of scattered throughout the the landscape in the in your supervisor.

Perley Brewer   18:28
So how many would be in a squad?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   18:28
So you're never.
Four to five in the squad, yeah.

Perley Brewer   18:32
OK, OK.
So what problems are caused?
You don't wanna watch these fires.
I see all kinds of different environmental conditions, some cases they're talking about extreme dryness, extreme heat, strong winds, hilly terrain.
You talk about situational awareness.
I assume a lot of those factors will come into play.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   18:52
Hmm, it does.
Yeah.
So you know when you talk about wind and and heat and and terrain, those are all conclusive too.
Dream creator.
So, you know, hotter it is the dryer.
The fuels you know the the force is more apt to burn when drives, you know the direction of the fire and how fast it goes.
And then when you have slope that it also makes fire run faster.
So.
So you really have to be able to keep your head on a swivel and and analyze your environment all the time.
When you're out there.

Perley Brewer   19:31
So if any of your colleagues had any close calls that the that they talk about when they're talking about responding to wildfires.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   19:40
Yeah, there's a.
There's always some, I guess, near me, misses and and close calls, but you know, you try to mitigate those things by having good, you know, briefings in the morning and and checking in throughout the day and then setting trigger points, you know.

Perley Brewer   19:48
Yeah.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   19:59
Um, yeah.

Perley Brewer   20:00
Hmm.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   20:00
And when it's time to stop engaging and and just say, OK, the fire's gonna do what it what it's gonna do today.
And there's, you know, it's time to think about other strategies.

Perley Brewer   20:12
How do you communicate with the sort of central command, so to speak, radios?
What kind of radios?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   20:19
Yeah.
So in province here we have TM R radios, but usually not a problem.
So I think it's more of each yes or something.

Perley Brewer   20:28
OK.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   20:29
So yeah, we have radios and, but there's that chain of command too.
So like within the squad, you would sort of just communicate with your squad leader and then the squad leader would communicate with the crew leader and so forth because you don't wanna overwhelm the the radio ma'am network.

Perley Brewer   20:49
Yeah, I guess we're all familiar too with, you know, the use of cell phones and and and not being able to communicate in a lot of different locations geographically.
Do you ever have problems with your radio systems where you're maybe in a very remote location and and you'll find your group you know you you're not getting the response?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   21:08
Yeah, often.
Yeah.
So that's something we always try to, you know, mitigate or if you're not able to communicate then you're you're not working safely, right.
So then you try to get closer together or or establish some sort of communication system before you proceed.

Perley Brewer   21:23
Yeah.
So you get up in the morning, you you have your breakfast and you're back, your lunch.
You're ready for the day goes.
What goes through your mind as you're sort of getting ready for the day?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   21:41
Um, this you know what's what's the weather going to be like today?
Um.
And.
There they pack enough food for today and in my packing, you know, whatever I need to survive the elements.
Oftentimes will be brought in to the line by helicopter, and so you have to be prepared.
You know, if we get smoked in or or weather moves in, you know, you may not be getting picked up for maybe a delay in getting picked up, right?
So they're just being well prepared to sort of survive in the elements.
Is is the biggest thing.

Perley Brewer   22:19
So mental fatigue, physical fatigue, probably, I would assume come into play.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   22:20
Yeah.

Perley Brewer   22:25
Uh, how tough is it on you physically when you fight forest fires that start with that?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   22:32
No, it's a grind.
It's a, you know, they're it's long days in the heat, in the sun and is, as you know, real manual labour.
Right.
And then you do it again and again for 14 days straight.
So it's tiring ohm you manage that through, you know trying to get as much rest as you can hydrating is is you know the big one and and just eating continuously as far as the.
Mental fatigue as a as a little bit different.
It's harder to manage when you're when you're on incident, cause you're just sort of kind of tunnel vision in the like what you need to do.
So like having you know, good camaraderie on the line between between firefighters, that's that's everything.
And then when you come back, just taking the time to sort of reset and just totally unplugged.
Too, so that you're able to come back and be refreshed to go to work.

Perley Brewer   23:36
How do you make a communication wise in communicating with your family back home while you're away?
Are there any kind of restrictions or you know, do you?
Are you allowed to, say, call your family every two or three nights?
Or how does that work?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   23:52
Yes, you can call them, but uh, depending on where you are, may you may not have service.
So and and you don't know where you're going before you leave so ohm.

Perley Brewer   23:56
You know.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   24:04
You know that's that's the thing.
So a lot of incidents, you know, if you, if you're lucky enough, you'll get up in a in a helicopter and you might get a couple of bars of a service and you can put out a couple of text messages with family.
But oftentimes your family won't hear from you for a few weeks.

Perley Brewer   24:21
There must be a pretty stressful for your family or for families.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   24:23
It is, yeah.
Yeah, there I can take it Thomas, like 30.
On on sung heroes, you know, like you when you're on the incident, you have the luxury of knowing you know what you're doing and and what's going on.
But your family back home all day may be getting is what they're hearing and in the media.
They don't have that luxury of knowing, you know where you are or what you're doing.
And so it's it can be quite stressful for them.

Perley Brewer   24:55
Fighting a residential in a residential area versus in a more remote area.
You know, I know last summer and some of the fires came so close were actually something came into the outskirts of Edmonton and we're not Edmonton, but Fort McMurray.
Rather, does that sort of heightened your the stress put on you as a firefighter when you start to get into a more residential environment versus maybe out in the wilderness?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   25:21
It's sure.
Yeah, you get, you know, people's lives at risk in, in their their homes and in their livelihoods.
So there's a lot more pressure.
Ohm, it's usually all over the media as well.
So I'm yeah, it definitely changes the game create for you.

Perley Brewer   25:39
So how were you treated by the local?
How were you treated by the locals?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   25:43
Other very appreciative that you're there.
You know?
Very thankful.
Obviously, when a Community community has been evacuated for a while, that can be ohm kind of tense, right?
Cause they wanna come home and and but they're understanding that, you know, we need to make sure that the the fire is out and so that's safe for them to come back as well right but but always you know deep appreciation.

Perley Brewer   26:11
So one final question though, you know obviously fighting wildfires is extremely stressful, both physically, mentally, uh, what would lead you to wanting to become a wad firefighter?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   26:27
Oh, I just love it.
It's a you never know where you're gonna be going, ohhhhh.
What your task will be for today, there's a sort of sense of adventure.
You know, I've been in in, in the north of Quebec and I would never go to those areas other than than fire, right.
So being able to see, you know, real.
Remoteness, I guess, is being able to go to those areas is is exciting and the work is exciting and the and the camaraderie that you get from from wildland firefighting and with your peers, there's nothing else like it.
So so yeah.

Perley Brewer   27:09
So who tends to be attracted to what you do is is that a lot of the younger people, I people don't families.
Are there any sort of group that if you look around at your colleagues at that sort of go with you that are on the line, do we do we see a lot of single people, you know, what would the demographics be?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   27:28
Oha young male, young I'm.

Perley Brewer   27:31
Uh.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   27:32
I'm kinda unique out there.
It's cause I'm a I'm a mother and I'm I'm married, but for the most part is is young men cause there's a there's.
There's quite a a physical.

Perley Brewer   27:41
Yeah.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   27:45
Testing requirement to be able to even do the job so that sort of cuts out.
You know, a lot of the demographic.
So, so usually they're, they're single and they're and they're young and they're, um, you know, gun ho.

Perley Brewer   28:00
Do do you find that a stressful situation for you is as one of the few females that are into this occupation?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   28:06
Yes, it's a tough place to be for sure.
Yep.

Perley Brewer   28:11
Now, what are there?
Do you run into other females that in when you're out there as well from other jurisdictions?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   28:19
Yep, it's it's, uh, where numbers are growing every year.

Perley Brewer   28:22
Yeah.
Good.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   28:23
Yeah.
So it's a it's not as lonely as it used to be, for sure.

Perley Brewer   28:24
Not good.
No.
Well, look at Natasha.
Thank you very much for giving us an overview of of what it's like as a wildfire fighter.
You know, I guess you know the words that stand out to me when you talk about situational awareness.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   28:42
Hmm.

Perley Brewer   28:42
That has to be so critical, so many hazards in fighting the fire and and you.
You know, I I watch these clips and some of the fires, I mean, it's the heat that's generated the smoke that's generated.
It's extremely dangerous conditions.

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   29:00
Yeah.
Yeah, it is.

Perley Brewer   29:01
Well, thank you very much.
Well, thank you very much Natasha, for joining us on our podcast today.
We we wish you well.
Do you expect that you'll be taking off again this summer?

Ouellette, Natasha (DNRED/MRNDE)   29:10
Yeah.
If they call comes I'll.
I'll be going for sure.

Perley Brewer   29:14
Well, look, stay safe and we wish you well.
And for our listeners, take care.
We will talk to you next week.