It’s that time of year again when the danger of wildfires is ever present. Many of us in this country live near wooded areas where we enjoy a variety of activities. Camping, fishing, hunting, hiking, photography or just enjoying the peace of nature are enjoyed by many in Canada and so it should be. However, this can quickly change, endangering the safety of the environment as well as the people, property, and animals who live in or around our forest. A fire can start by accident, carelessness or in some cases intentionally. Last year the people of this country suffered tremendous loss due to fires. It was the second worse wildfire season surpassed only by those in 2023. Over seven million hectares of forest land was destroyed impacting communities and their economy.

In the province of Newfoundland where I live, the most serious fires were in Conception Bay North affecting several communities there destroying and damaging 203 structures and displacing hundreds of residents. Last year while reading one of the news articles on these fires, it reminded me of a wildfire in the Grand Falls, Newfoundland I attended when I was a young member in the 1970’s. Grand Falls was no stranger to wildfires and this was one of my first experiences with this type of castastrophe. The location of this one was on New Bay Road and fortuneately for me there was an old firefighter on the scene when I arrived. He had seen more of these fires than I ever would. The following is a poem I wrote about this experience.

Monster

The tires crunched on

The gravel road as I

Rolled up behind the

Fire truck blocking further access

Closing the door of my cruiser

I walked through the

Heat to the fireman

An older man with

Eyes of experience

Watching the fire

Smoke curled low and high as

Slowly the blaze devoured

The brush and trees in front of it

Some tall giants falling

Splashing embers silently in

The roar of crackling wood

Hypnotized by this scene

I stood there in my youth until

The chief, dressed in bunker gear

Touched my shoulder

I turned to face him as

He spoke calmly

We need to move back now

We backed down the

Road about a hundred meters

Moments past as the beast

Licked the blood from its lips

Before rising into a gigantic

Ball of orange blasting us

With its heat before swallowing

All oxygen in the air

Surrounding it as it

Rolled across the road

Where we had stood

Consuming, destroying