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During the summer of 2022, more than 40,000 hectares of forest has burned in British Columbia, with approximately 1,200 firefighters battling wildfires, working 12-to-14-hour days.

Elora van Jarrett leads a 20-person crew, the Port Alberni Thunderbirds, that has been fighting a fire of more than 7,000 hectares in Keremeos.

含羞草研究社淚t certainly had its challenges, a lot of the fire line was down in the community there, but by the time I got there, it had worked its way up onto the mountainside and that含羞草研究社檚 a lot of work, but it seems a lot more achievable and less stressful when you含羞草研究社檙e not right up against people含羞草研究社檚 homes,含羞草研究社� van Jarrett said, noting approximately 40 per cent of forest fires are human-caused.

含羞草研究社淎 fire can move incredibly fast, aircraft can含羞草研究社檛 do anything when a fire has gained a ton of momentum and is burning what we call at rank six, the highest fire behaviour that we have on our ranking scale. If it含羞草研究社檚 burning at that intensity, there含羞草研究社檚 essentially nothing that we can do at that point,含羞草研究社� van Jarrett said.

The veteran of 15 firefighting seasons said: 含羞草研究社淔ighting fires in B.C. is rewarding in so many ways, it含羞草研究社檚 physically demanding, yes, but that feels like a great achievement, the best feeling is when you just worked so hard and put it all out on the line, and you come out at the end of the day just feeling invigorated but exhausted, that含羞草研究社檚 my favourite day.含羞草研究社�

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