At 15, wildfires destroyed this firefighter's hometown. Specialized training could save communities like his

Ryan Coutts was 15 years old when his hometown in Alberta burned down around him. 

Born into a firefighting family in Slave Lake — his father was fire chief — Coutts was a junior firefighter when the 2011 wildfire tore through, razing 40 per cent of the town into ash. As residents evacuated, Coutts stayed behind with his family, including his mother and young sister, to save what they could.

• Watch Still Standing: Slave Lake on CBC Gem

Miraculously, no lives were lost, but many lives had to be rebuilt from scratch. And in the years since the devastating blaze, they had to rebuild with one critical question in mind: What if it happens again?

We didn't even have one-hour notice- Slave Lake resident Chana Trudel

As Still Standing visits Slave Lake and its resilient residents, the memory of the 2011 wildfire remains forged into the town's DNA. It's one of many regions in Canada where seasonal fires are as normal as rain or snow — except when the wind changes dangerously fast.

Coutts remembers "a super windy day, really hot, dry," when he joked to his father about all the fire trucks being called out, and they were the only two left in the hall. Junior firefighters typically don't go out on calls, especially at 15 years old, so Coutts quipped that he might get called to a blaze — his father laughed and brushed him off.

Within 20 minutes, his father came running and Coutts remembers his words: "'You're coming with me.'"

The wind had suddenly picked up mid-afternoon, Coutts says, clocked at 125 km/hr, turning a relatively ordinary wildfire into a suddenly dangerous inferno headed straight into town. It's not safe for planes and helicopters to operate at those high wind speeds, he points out, which are critical tools against wildfires.

As resident Chana Trudel points out in Still Standing, there was no one-day evacuation notice, no four-hour notice — "We didn't even have one-hour notice," she says.

Now 27 years old and a captain with the Lesser Slave Regional Fire Service, Coutts doesn't remember being afraid at the time. He was too young, he admits.

"I think I have definitely looked back and have more appreciation for what the incident actually was," he says. "You know, at 15, you're a little bit naive, and think that you can walk on water still, and I don't think I fully understood the realm of everything happening."

But as he's grown up in the aftermath, Coutts has been working to ensure, next time, they can save the town.

Bringing two worlds together

Earlier evacuations, smart rebuilds and education form the basis of the wildfire response, Coutts says. 

Even during the 2016 wildfire in Fort McMurray — fives years after Slave Lake — the evacuation was chaotic, Coutts points out. Although evacuations are "sad and hard," he says the priority now is to leave sooner to ensure residents are cleared from harm's way.

Rebuilding the community with High Intensity Residential Fire (HIRF) regulations in mind also helps minimize damage in future fires — so families can have a home to return to.

"A lot of the trees were burned in the community — the urban side of town, they got affected the heaviest," Coutts says. "So it was good to reset the vegetation. And I think a lot of people, while they're rebuilding, we're really thinking about FireSmart principles, and you know, how they could make their houses safer for the future."

The Province of Alberta also funded specialized education for firefighters, bringing together two separate areas of expertise: fighting fires in a forest, and fighting fires in a community. 

Called Wildland Urban Interface, or WUI, Coutts says this specific form of training had been common in the United States for a long time. Forestry firefighters and structural firefighters each had their own skill set, and WUI "brought those two worlds together."

"I think the biggest thing is we have better plans in place now," Coutts says. "Back then, we had a plan — but it had never happened, right? So it's really hard when you don't know what you don't know."

The mindset of everybody has definitely changed.- Senior Firefighter Joanne Hunter

Senior firefighter Joanne Hunter is a WUI expert. In Still Standing, Hunter runs through some training exercises with host Jonny Harris, hosing down a vehicle on fire.

"So Wildland Urban Interface is that line, or that area, where structures and other human developments intermingle with undeveloped land," Hunter says. "So Slave Lake is an example in that we've got this urban centre, but we're surrounded by the Boreal forest. And the interface part of it is that edge, that edge where the forest fuels meet the urban setting."

As resident Trudel had pointed out earlier in the episode, when the 2011 wildfire smoke turned from grey to black, that was a bad sign — black smoke meant the fire was hitting roof shingles and manmade materials. It's the sinking moment when everyone realized the town was burning. It was WUI in action.

The conversation around wildfire preparedness has evolved dramatically since the devastation of the fire, Hunter says. 

A lot of preparation is about structure protection, from sprinkler systems and water sources to ensuring areas are cleared around homes. Piles of wood or sources of fuel should be stored far from a house or cabin, she explains, and brush and low branches should be cleared. The distance between trees and homes — even the type of tree — are all part of creating non-combustible zones around structures.

Even just basic preparedness includes having documents and passports organized, a full tank of gas, prized possessions in easy-to-access locations, and so on — just in case you have to leave in a moment's notice, Hunter says. 

"[In 2011] there simply was no time to give advance warning," she says. "It was a wind change. And half an hour later, a third of our town is burning."

"I just think it's the mindset of everybody, the mindset has definitely changed," she adds. "You know, trying to be more and better prepared, we're trying to have better conversations, and encourage folks to really look at their properties."