Brush Fire in Borden

[Tpr.Orange]

Hey all I was on ex this weekend in borden by Delta West noticed the fire trucks out and tons of smoke, came by the area just a couple hours ago and the entire ground was scorched earth!

We were but on standby to assist in digging etc... if the fires spread across the road thankfully it didn't.

From what we heard paraflare started it off, the area was fairly dry and it was only a matter of time.

 

[Sappo]

Yep.... I was there front and centre with my BMQ.

We were setting up for our Nav Ex on sat morning, and had a small pyrotechnics display before jumping off... 2 of the 3 para flares we fired off landed in the very dry grass.... noticed the smoke approx 5-6 minutes later.... by the time our platoon and another course platoon ran the considerable distance to the fire it was already spread and well out of hand for us.

We did the best considering we only had our feet... eventually we got a few shovels/rakes/brooms.... tried to at least beat it back from spreading more.... but considering the wide open area, dry grass... and strong wind it was no use...

In the end we were out there until after dinner helping the fire crews fight it..... even getting some portable water packs later on in the day did almost nothing for us, simply had to wait for the big guns to show up and hose the perimeter down.

I forget the exact size, but it was estimated somewhere around 2km square got burned up... a large area...

Anyone who can go see it, take a look... its a massive section of training area.

 

[Sh0rtbUs]

On our SQ we threw a few tracers over the berm by accident and set the entire forest behind it on fire. Absolutely the most fun I've had in the army up to date  ;D

 

[PteCamp]

I was ExCon for the Exercise Iron Talon that was out there.
It was a pretty incredible fire.  2 grid squares completely gone.
One of our platoons was evacuated for a few hours.

 

[Pyromechanica]

Yep.... I was there front and centre with my BMQ.

We were setting up for our Nav Ex on sat morning, and had a small pyrotechnics display before jumping off... 2 of the 3 para flares we fired off landed in the very dry grass.... noticed the smoke approx 5-6 minutes later.... by the time our platoon and another course platoon ran the considerable distance to the fire it was already spread and well out of hand for us.

We did the best considering we only had our feet... eventually we got a few shovels/rakes/brooms.... tried to at least beat it back from spreading more.... but considering the wide open area, dry grass... and strong wind it was no use...

In the end we were out there until after dinner helping the fire crews fight it..... even getting some portable water packs later on in the day did almost nothing for us, simply had to wait for the big guns to show up and hose the perimeter down.

I forget the exact size, but it was estimated somewhere around 2km square got burned up... a large area...

Anyone who can go see it, take a look... its a massive section of training area.

Should have came earlier...

 

[Sappo]

Yea it was intense... totally unexpected I'd be fighting a fire all day long....

All the staff I asked said thats the biggest fire they've seen on base before, and I can believe it.

 

[Baloo]

Saw the damage you guys did today, on the exercise. Nice job. Black and smouldering. 

 

[MikeM]

Yeah good work. You were the reason we couldn't use pyro on our attack

 

[Baloo]

That's odd, considering we were throwing arty-sims and t-flashes like no-ones business.

 

[PteCamp]

Yeah, when Sunday morning came around, certain groups were allowed to use pyro again, just not flares I believe...It took a lot of convincing of Range Control to let that happen though...

 

[patt]

so thats what it was...i walked outside and smelt all this burning grass and tryin to figure out where it was comin from and then i looked over towards the ranges and saw the cloud comin up..

 

[MikeM]

We were allowed pyro on the second attack.. not the first one.

 

[Tpr.Orange]

we were not allowed to use any pyro at all and were placed on standby to start digging the breaks.. thankfully the Borden fire fighters got control over the area. When we were leaving sunday afternoon we drove right through the area... it was Scorched earth all the way. Just some trees standing in the middle of it all ... completley crazy we figured it was para flares cause we were told not to smoke on the grass cause it was so dry, and then we see someone firing off para flares... one thing lead to another and bam somebody was taking heat.


Its good to see nobody got hurt though.

 

[Sappo]

aye considering the # of people we had standing literally in the fire...

my bmq's 45 or some odd troops... plus staff.... plus an officers course worth... and whoever else they wrangled in to help us out.

i think the most we got was one guy complained of possible smoke inhilation... and a few pulled muscles

i know personally after doing that fire battle all day... and still managing to squeeze in our nav ex after dinner i was exhausted.

 

[black_phoenix]

you ain't the only one...  i am surprised that we had to do the nav on sunday too tho...i really thought that we would do the gas hut. :skull:

 

[swanita]

We did the best considering we only had our feet... eventually we got a few shovels/rakes/brooms.... tried to at least beat it back from spreading more.... but considering the wide open area, dry grass... and strong wind it was no use...

In the end we were out there until after dinner helping the fire crews fight it..... even getting some portable water packs later on in the day did almost nothing for us, simply had to wait for the big guns to show up and hose the perimeter down.

I forget the exact size, but it was estimated somewhere around 2km square got burned up... a large area...

Anyone who can go see it, take a look... its a massive section of training area.

Yup & as one of the instructors on that course, definitely changed the schedule a wee bit.  But pretty much all of training area F was burned up that day, including 2 porta-potties!

Most interesting ex i've been on in quite a while myself!

 

[Sappo]

Some pictures from the fire in Borden...

And mind you they dont even begin to take in the size of the fire

 

[Tpr.Orange]

great pictures!

 

[PteCamp]

I hope Iron Talon 2 next weekend is just as exciting  ;D

 

[Canadian Sig]

Some pictures from the fire in Borden...

I hope Iron Talon 2 next weekend is just as exciting   ;D

Um...Um... never mind :