Mark Healey, an incident commander with the BC Wildfire Service, says he took a 2 1/2 hour flight over the southern flank of the enormous Donnie Creek fire in northeastern British Columbia.
“I never saw either end of the fire,” says Healey, who’s in the middle of a two-week stint managing what is B.C.’s largest ever wildfire. At 5,500 square kilometres, it is almost as big as Prince Edward Island.
Tackling it demands a shift in tactics. Instead of striving to extinguish the vast blaze, the BC Wildfire Service is focused on protecting homes and infrastructure, while letting other areas burn….