Ed Brouwer’s fire suppression team recently took a helicopter ride to a fire near Cawston, where they hand-dug a 1.5-kilometre fireguard to keep the lightning-caused fire from spreading. Photo submitted

OSOYOOS TIMES-August 19, 2009

By Laurena Weninger - Osoyoos Times

He might look like a mild-mannered real estate agent but beneath that everyday exterior, Luke Pierlet is one of more than a dozen Osoyoos residents working to keep communities safe during fire season.
“I hate sitting around doing nothing and real estate has been a bit on the slow side,” Pierlet said about his recent work fighting forest fires.
Other members of his fire suppression team include an accountant, an electrician, a pizza man and a substitute schoolteacher – really, anyone who wants to take a little training, then get out and attack a fire.
There are four fire warden suppression teams in the Penticton fire zone, explained warden Ed Brouwer, who runs Pierlet’s team.
Two of the teams are in Osoyoos – the one he leads, and one led by rural Area A Director Mark Pendergraft, who is also a rancher.
Brouwer started off as fire warden 20 years ago and back then his duties included regular patrols in the backcountry on horseback.
“In the ’80s, we were the first Canadian family to have an initial attack crew out of our home,” he said.
Brouwer, his wife Judi, and his three children all worked with him on contract to B.C. Forest Service.
Now his wife has retired but his team has grown to include approximately 10 regular members, all trained and ready to leave their day jobs to fight fires.
Brouwer’s and Pendergraft’s teams operate the same way.
During fire season, if the B.C. Forest Service sees fit, it puts the team on standby.
That means they have committed that if they get the call, they can be in the truck and ready to go within 20 minutes.
They are then sent to a fire anywhere within the Penticton zone.
Pendergraft, who has been a fire warden for 15 years, recently took his team to a fire on White Lake Road near Oliver.
“Lately we’ve been doing the initial attack stuff,” he said.
That means they are first on the scene, build a fireguard and lay out hoses.
“Quite often we squirt water on the fire if there’s water available,” he said.
Brouwer’s team has been working at “Fire 1312” – a small lightning-caused fire near Cawston.
The only access to the site is by helicopter.
When the team arrived, the crew set up “water bladders,” which then held water dropped off by helicopter.
In addition to pumping that onto the fire, they dug a 1.5-kilometre trench, 50 centimetres wide, called a fireguard.
“We were bagged,” Brouwer said.
It’s hard work, but it’s rewarding, Pendergraft said.
“A lot of them (his team members) have full-time jobs and are prepared to leave their jobs to do this,” he said.
They get paid when they are on the scene, but it averages out to about $15 per hour, Brouwer said.
Brouwer is a full-time pastor at the Gathering Place and runs Canwest Fire Services.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “I can’t get enough of it… It gets in your blood.”
Pierlet spent his 62nd birthday at the Cawston fire site.
He said it’s very hard on you physically to do the work, but in the end you feel like you have accomplished something.
Besides, he is always up for trying something different.
“I thought, this sounds like a new adventure.”
reporter@osoyoostimes.com