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Post-secondary students on Prince Edward Island are gearing up to help fight wildfires on P.E.I. and across the country this summer. <\/p>\n
Run by Forests, Fish and Wildlife P.E.I., the group of four work as full-time staff to assist firefighters on the job, expanding the province’s capacity to tackle wildfires. <\/p>\n
“They’ve been a game changer for us. It’s nice to have that youthful energy on these fires and it’s been amazing,” Mike Montigny, field services manager for Forests, Fish and Wildlife, told\u00a0Island Morning\u00a0host Mitch Cormier Wednesday. <\/p>\n
When the students are not fighting fires, they take on other jobs to maintain fire infrastructure, such as cleaning and testing hose pressure.<\/p>\n
“They are helping not just for the response activities, but for making sure that all the equipment is set up ready to go. So it’s a full-time job, ” Montigny said. <\/p>\n
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‘My job is to make sure they all come home safe at the end of the day,’ says Mike Montigny of the student firefighting squad. (CBC)<\/p>\n
Returning student Patrick Duguay has travelled across Canada as part of the provincial export team.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Last year, he joined other students\u00a0from P.E.I. who were deployed to the Yukon and Saskatchewan to assist wildfire crews in those provinces.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
“The first time was a pretty big eye-opener on how just like the landscape in general is way different and just the scale of everything is so much bigger than on P.E.I.,” said Duguay.<\/p>\n
Montigny said the students end up better equipped to fight fires back home on P.E.I. <\/p>\n
Duguay, who recently finished a program at Holland College and is working toward a bachelor of wildlife\u00a0conservation\u00a0at UPEI, said the job also looks great on a resum\u00e9, showing he can “work on the fly and adapt to change.” <\/p>\n
Extra hands during fire season <\/p>\n
The job gets the students outdoors while they learn to use tools like chainsaws and brush saws as well as machinery like ATVs, and even helicopters and water bombers. <\/p>\n
This means there is lots of ongoing training and drills to make sure students are well-prepared.<\/p>\n
“My job is to make sure they all come home safe at the end of the day, so safety is our number one priority for them,” Montigny said. “Making sure that they understand and really understand fire is a dangerous business.” <\/p>\n
There have been six smaller wildfires on P.E.I. so far this season, which is slightly above average for this time of year.<\/p>\n