The summer months of July and August were not cold and rainy as summers past, but rather hot and dry; a summer for sun worshipers and not Forest Fire Fighters. This meant that no matter what you read, the front pages were filled with headlines of large Forest Fires causing problems coast to coast and not low beach attendance due to the unseasonal temperatures. “Forest Fires Threaten the Trans Canada Highway in Northeastern Ontario”; “Huge Forest Fires in BC Merge into Huge Blaze”; “Wildfires Continue to Ravage California”. There was absolutely no shortage of stories for those who wish to tell them. I had the opportunity to do some fill in flying on fires here in Ontario and I can tell you first hand, there was some excellent work being done both on the ground and in the air under extreme forest fire conditions. As a tribute to a job well done by all those involved, I have dug up from my archive when I was a forest fire fighter here in Northern Ontario; a fellow Fire Boss’s poem “Ode to a Fire Fighter” written by my colleague and friend Ken R. Russell. I just want to say there was never a dull moment on the line or in camp when Kenny (The Russell Factor) was around.
