Experience is Burning Away on Canada’s Fireline.

Peace River Unit Crew 2016 - Sweeny Creek Fire

I’ve fought wildfires for over 20 years, and after yet another devastating season, I’m more concerned than ever. Without serious investment in resources for wildland firefighters now, we will once again be dangerously unprepared for the destruction awaiting us next summer and in the years to come.

The 2025 wildfire season is coming to an end. What was expected to be mild turned into the second worst in Canada’s history. More than 8.7 million hectares of land burned, an area larger than the entire province of New Brunswick. That is roughly one billion mature trees lost and 68,800 people evacuated, with more than half from Indigenous communities.

This isn’t new. With the worst fire season only two years ago, and the last ten among the most destructive in recorded history, the baseline for a bad year has been rewritten. These climate-fueled fires that choke our skies with smoke, threaten communities, and force mass evacuations are now the rhythm of every summer.

Canada’s wildfire system was designed decades ago for smaller, shorter fire seasons. It was never built for what we’re facing now.

Yet, like every season before, thousands of brave wildland firefighters put themselves on the frontlines to protect lives, communities, and natural resources. They sacrifice their summers and their safety to help others.

You would think, given the scale of the threat, that Canada would have an army of experienced wildfire professionals ready to battle the flames. However, this is the opposite of reality. Our wildfire frontline workforce is seasonal, with most firefighters leaving after only a year or two. Some provinces have seen up to 50 percent turnover each season. There are still veterans scattered amongst the ranks, but overwhelmingly, crews are made up of rookies led by individuals with only a few seasons under their belts.

The result is a dangerous erosion of experience. Fatalities, once rare, are becoming disturbingly common. I cannot help but link this trend to the inexperience now dominating the fireline.

So why is retention so low? The answer is simple. The job is not set up as a career. Believe it or not, wildland firefighters are not even classified as first responders. Because of that, they lack the wages, pensions, and benefits that their structural firefighting counterparts receive. What should be a lifelong profession has been reduced to a summer job used as a stepping stone to something else and a culture where experience is not valued.

It costs far less to retain a trained firefighter than to train two rookies to replace them every year.

During my years on the line, I had the privilege of leading hundreds of firefighters. On the rare occasions when my crew was seasoned, when we were not learning how to fight fires but actually fighting them, what we could accomplish was remarkable. The fires we could hold, the ones we could extinguish, made the difference between disaster and control. But experience never lasts. One by one, my best people left the job. Eventually, I had to do the same.

Every year, firefighters from other countries come to help during our summers. As grateful as I am for their support, there is one unequivocal truth: the best firefighters are the ones protecting their own homes.

With the next worst fire season always around the corner, Canada needs to invest in the people who defend our communities. It’s time for Parliament to formally recognize wildland firefighters as first responders, granting them the same protections, presumptive coverage, and respect that police, paramedics, and municipal firefighters already have.

We need to stop treating experience as expendable. Building a full-time, professional wildfire workforce with fair pay, proper benefits, and year-round employment would not only strengthen our response but save lives.

There is a future where Canada’s wildfire system sustains a dedicated, experienced workforce. A future where wildland firefighting is not just a summer job or a stopgap, but a respected career that people can build their lives around.

You can have an experienced wildfire workforce or an underfunded one, but not both. By investing in the future of wildland firefighters, we are not only defending our communities and natural resources, but also protecting those who protect us.

Harold R. Larson
Veteran Wildland Firefighter and Author of The Wildfire Twenty