May 25, 2023 The two dug a perimeter around the cottage and lit it as the wildfire approached.
Source Firehouse.com News
Louis and Clarence McCallum have a combined 64 years of firefighting experience.
“All of a sudden you could hear the fire in the background really roaring, coming towards the cabin. I told my dad, I said, ‘If we don’t back burn, it’s going to burn down.’ I grabbed a five-gallon tank of gas that I poured around the cabin and lit it on fire,” Clarence told CBC News.
The pair started burning a line, eliminating as much fuel as they could from around the cabin. Louis said surrounding trees caught fire, wrapping the cottage in a ring of flames.
“We didn’t have very much time to run to the lake — we barely made it to the dock. We had to run in the water and push the boat out, and get out of there. Once we got out of there, we didn’t even know where we were going anyway because there was too much smoke and red ashes just flying,” Louis recalled.
They wouldn’t know until the next day if their plan worked.
While surveying the damage by helicopter, Clarence saw they were able to protect not only their cabin but their neighbor’s as well.
“I told him that the cabin was still up. My mom was happy because that cabin was there for the family for the last 27 years and all of our pictures were in there — photo albums, all the memories that we had. If that would have burned, it would have been a sad moment and I’m just glad that it’s still standing today.”
“He (my dad) taught me all I know and he still teaches me today on how to fight fires,” he said. “To be there, fighting a fire like that, it breaks my heart. But for me and him to do that together, it sure bonded us even more.”