From the fire line to the flood zone: how firefighters are helping with flooding

Firefighterswith the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry are assisting in flood prone areas this spring.

Flooding has been affecting many areas of Ontario, including near Ottawa. High water levels paired with a slow start to the forest fire season means crews are being sent to assist, according to Isabelle Chenard with the ministry.

She says since April 1, there have been 38 forest fires in Ontario.

"If we compare that to last year we can tell it's a slow start because we had already seen 121 forest fires in 2018 on this date," she said.

"So we have some crews from Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services that have been deployed to assist in certain areas. We have 116 Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services staff members that have been deployed."

Crews are assisting with sandbagging and moving water from low-lying areas.

Sudbury-based firefighter Brandon McNab just got back from his deployment in the Petawawa area. He and his team were based at the community centre in the town.

"Community members would come over and we'd assist them," he said.

"If they needed sandbags, we would load up their trucks and trailers. We felt good about it. We work in emergency services so basically everybody here is just working to contribute to social good."

He says crews were able to start helping as soon as they arrived.

"The main issue that we had to worry about was fatigue," he said."It's a lot of heavy lifting. We don't really do heavy shovelling for 14-hour days on the fire line. We kind of have a different strategy."

Now that he's back in Sudbury, McNab's focus is making sure his crews are ready for the upcoming forest fire season.

"It's slow right now but things can change quite quickly," he said.

"With our spring fire season it's often our flash fuels such as matted grass that don't take long to dry out. Even if we do get a good rainfall, within a day we could have grass fires. We can't let our guard down. We're always prepared and we're ready to go."