SpyD BlogEscape from Fire 52
Published: Wed Aug 16 2023
My Name is Franco Nogarin (No-gah-reen). I am a Forest Planning officer and Wildfire Modeler at The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT), in Fire Sciences working out of Fort Smith NT. I have called Fort Smith my home since 1994 and I live there with my Wife Heidi Selzler (Sells-zler) and our 2 cats. On Saturday, August 12th left our home in Fort Smith, for possibly the last time, we were late getting out, relative to the evacuation order. We left that day, as so many others had left Fort Smith before us, and so many others left the previous 5 community wildfire evacuations in the NWT before Fort Smith. Sad, tired, fearful of what may happen to our homes, and worrying for those who we left behind.
We went to the old town of Hay River, Nt and set up our camper, at my Brother Dario Nogarin's home on Vale Island. I felt at the time that we would all be ok, and tried to make this into a holiday with family and tried to enjoy it, and for a very short while that's what it felt like.
This is the story of my attempt to get our family out of Hay River last Sunday night, I began making notes that night, because I knew as the adrenaline wore off, memories would start to change. I did not want to forget any of it, and I most especially did not want to forget about the man that saved our lives that night. This story is rough in places, my hands are cramped, eyes sore and we are exhausted, This is the story based on my notes, the photos were taken by my wife and the mode of delivery inspired by my friend Don Jaque who posted a 50 screen epic on facebook describing his roller coaster "Yesterday" which included being impacted by our ordeal. I dont have an editor so its kind of raw.
On Sunday we left around 6:30PM from Hay River. after the official evacuation order was announced.
Passing the hospital, the sky took on a familiar glow and I knew it was going to be a long night, no matter what. Once past the junction, I sped up to our agreed absolute travelling speed of 90KM maximum because the 2 cats on board do not enjoy being in the vehicle, and I don't like additional stress when I am driving through fire. We were in my F150 pulling my camper trailer. A long affair and not easy to turn around on a sharped shouldered, windy, narrow highway, so I was further on edge. I was wary because after the evacuations I had not been able to get my trailer lights working properly. I have driven through plenty of wildfires, both mild and scary alike, and knew that driving at night through smoke without clearance lights was ... more dangerous. My brother agreed to be my caboose and watch my back to make sure that drivers behind us did not have to cope with my flakey trailer lights.
When we got to the golf course, I could see the wind starting to interact with the smoke and began to quietly worry. I am one of those fire science nerds that likes to stand in my fireproof nomex and watch how fire moves in extreme circumstances. My wife is an experienced wildfire videographer and has seen her share of crazy fire behaviour herself. It's a mesmerizing phenomenon and hard to forget some of the telltale signs. We looked at each other and could see the worry in each other's eyes and we went into emergency crisis mode, but despite this, Heidi kept shooting.
At this point it was a mild trepidation for me, continuing on as other members of my family lived just before Delancey Estates so as we moved forward at a 90km clip I felt they would be safe for some time at least. My Brother called me, we still had cell phones working then, and asked me to test my tail lights, with no one on the road I thought it was a good idea, he confirmed that the lights were still not working properly, and I was too engrossed in the smoke patterns to think if hanging up.
As we drove past garden road (633pm) I was seeing the wind gust interactions again and became alarmed. I told myself the glow was probably mostly sunlight obscured by smoke. I think I wanted very badly to believe that. I think my brother must have been watching the sky too, because he did not hang up either.
Passing by Patterson's (6:37pm) I knew without a doubt that was not the sun. I now started looking at the road and thinking if and how i might consider turning around, but i said nothing, not wanting to further worry Heidi and kept on going, wanting nothing more than to get my family out of harm's way, We kept on going, Nothing in front, and my brother's reassuring headlights in my trailer mirror and knowing he was still on the line.
Around the next corner, I was blinded by a brilliant light, and my struggling night vision strained to make out what was happening on the road, I thought I saw flashing too, so i heisted then started to slow down a little, Warning Dario that i was slowing down there was something in the road.
When I got a little closer, I could see the brake lights of a pickup trailer rig that looked even bigger than mine, stopped. and next to it was a truck with flashers on, and a light-bar on full. I warned my brother, and started to slow, I was focusing on the vehicles , concerned it was an accident at the worst possible time, I was not watching the glow as we pulled up, neither was the elderly man, standing there, frantically trying to tell the driver ahead something. As we pulled up close, the folks in front started to move forward, and I was unsure why at that moment. The elderly man immediately began to tell me that the fire was just around the next two corners, and that I had to go back. I didn't know how but I recognized this man, from Fort Smith, it was Ray Shields, Older than I remember him, but I remembered his voice and his eyes and my brother later confirmed it was Ray. I immediately told him he needs to torn off the light bar because it was blinding folks and they could not see his flashers, and ray said Oh I'm sorry and turned around and got back in his truck and turned of his light, at that moment, a dark pickup seemed to pull out and pass Dario & I and raced on a head. As the camper folks ahead of us pulled over to the right to start a 40 point turn, the fire 52 rounded the corner whipping like a tail, and the dark pickup roared around the camper, driving straight into the inferno. I believed at that moment that I just watched someone burn alive. and I was crushed. My Heidi kind of screamed and I think blurted out some profanity and then Ray was back at my window, the flames behind him in the distance, his mission was to make me go back, I told him I work for ENR, I know wildfires, and i am turning around as soon as the trailer in front lets me - I Promise. I asked ray to get back in his truck and go, he insisted he needed to warn people, and my Heidi sort of screamed at him, that he needed to get back in his truck and go or he would die, I said go, stop them further up, but now he was watching the trailer turning around as the fire bore down on them, worried, and as the driver made the last points of his turn I yelled again at ray to go and promised i would turn and get out. as the trailer passed me, I saw the smoke start to spin, it was a red flag for me and a premonition as to what would come next. I screamed at my brother on the phone to turn around and get out as fast as he could, i continued forward away from ray and the other camper congested behind me, as i slowed to start my on 40 point turn the fire seemed to suck back and it almost looked tame. for a millisecond,
The next parts, happened so fast I could not tell you how long it took, this is the last photo of fire 52 we took that night and was at 640pm. Heidi wisely put her camera down and held on for her life. I felt this was my only moment to turn around, so I turned down in the ditch and backed out taking a fair chunk out of my turn, but now i was across the highway, nose in north ditch, straddling the highway, with my trailer hanging off the road in the south ditch vulnerable. Everything went pitch brown, and I could not even see the hood of my truck, in my mind i knew we were either dead, or we were going to be on fire soon, then i felt the wind try flip my trailer over, and debris started hitting the truck like a sideways hail storm, in the blackness my instincts must have taken over took over, I floored the truck, cranking hard left dragging my trailer into the ditch and push the accelerator as hard as i could to the floor, still totally blind i could feel the traction start to improve and we sped up. still blind i could feel the left side of the truck tilting up and i knew i was climbing the ditch out. at that moment, my left arm out the window i felt my skin starting to burn, blind looking forward, and looked in the mirror, i could see the fire whirl that formed on the highway as both sides of the highway now fully involved, were crowning (They tops of the trees where burning at extreme intensity) and the air and smoke between on the highway was had formed a vortex and was sucking the crowning flames into it creating a fire tornado and it was right behind me! Fire 52 was trying to eat us all. As I raced ahead still blinded by smoke and up over the shoulder onto the pavement gaining speed. I don't know how it is possible I did not hit a power pole, a sign, or a telco box or something but I didn't and as my tires caught solid pavement I accelerated until the smoke was gone. Inches to my left, almost touching, was Ray!! In his White Pickup racing out of the smoke, we were neck and neck, I waved him off, and he realized I was there, and he veered away to give me room. I could still see the fire behind me but could not feel it on my arm any more, and realized I had been breathing that smoke the entire time, and coughed a lot. Ray sped off and I slowed to 60 knowing what was coming next, I yelled once more into my phone and told my brother to go to our families just outside of Delancey Estates and told him to make them leave, make them go to the beach (The emergency safety zone) now, and not take no for an answer because this fire was gonna destroy everything in its path. At this point I told Heidi that I thought we were gonna die back there, I was shaking and as I looked up I saw the endless line of cars coming towards the fire and tears started to run down my face... and there was Ray! again! He had pulled over to try and get people to turn around using the rest stop, crazy genius! But the fire was still coming and the vehicles were endless, my mind told me they could all burn, Heidi said, stay on the horn all the way, and so with my flashers on and alternating with my right hand between flashing my high beams, I slowed to 60 drove a little over the center line hoping that people would at least be wary of a vehicle not in its own lane and hung myself out the window, laying on the horn, and waving my left arm in an exaggerated turn around motion, breathing in smoke and screaming at the top of my lungs "Go back or you will die!!", trying to catch the eye of each driver, as I was exaggerating my lip movements in hope it would help them under stand. Then checking the rear view to see if they breaked many did but not all and I worried, that Ray and the turnaround would be overwhelmed so I tried harder, and I was openly sobbing as my subconscious mind started doing the math of how many people might be burned alive, I then saw 2 fire trucks, not the kind that drive into wild fires rather the kind that get eaten by this wildfire, They were municipal fire trucks, and screamed to the universe and smashed my fist in the wheel, why would they send fire trucks, into that hell. no one answered. I started my fire carreer, in Hay River as a volunteer fire fighter, I knew so many of them, and thought of all my alumni dying in vain, I screamed again this time at poor heidi to dial 911, and she did so immediately and I tried to calm myslef so I could try and talk on the phone, I got dispatch and I asked for Hay River RCMP and said people are going to die in the fire, and like lighting i was on with RCMP Hay River, as I spoke, I continued to wave my arms and try and tell people to turn around as i very quickly explained on the phone who I was and what my credentials were in hopes this would expedite my request, I begged them to put a unit at the highway junction to stop any more people from driving into the fire, the poor woman on the line, knew I was right as I rattled off what was going to happen if she did not send help and then she told me Im sorry, we have no units to send, they all responded to the car fire out there..... Car fire.... and my heart sank again, and I thought of Ray trying to save all those people, car fire meant that 52 had gotten someone, and it felt like I just let all those people including Ray die. I began to sob, and knew I could do no good, on the phone, so I thanked the dispatcher, and told her I was going to hang up and let her do her job, thanked her for everything she was doing and hung up. Then I started to see less evacuees and more emergency vehicles, but in my state My arm kept waving and and I kept screaming at vehicles to go back, still thinking if just a few turn around it might help, I am pretty sure I did that to a few EMS vehicles, who probably thought I was a nut. but eventually, I saw them blocking the road behind me and a now nice long stream of vehicles behind me, and iI immediately thought about those behind me and that Ray HAD to have turned them around, there were so many behind me now when before there was only me. I quickly resolved that the best I could do was warn a few more people and made a few more frantic calls. I drove in shock the rest of the way all the way to the beach, where we were welcomed by the evacuees who were camping in the group camping area and in shock parked my truck and walked around in a daze. A kind fellow Rod took me aside and talked me down a bit. I could barely speak the rest of the night. And the beach sunset was so beautiful you could almost forget about what was raging out at Pattersons Mill, We barely escaped within millimeters of our lives. But we were alive. Because of Ray.
There are many horror stories that happened on the highway that night, some fared better than I and some fared much much worse, But as the stories of destruction and near death mounted I noted that not one human life lost was reported, impossible, and that ate at my mind.
It took monday and tuesday for the adrenaline low, to subside and for my hands to stop shaking, and when they did All I could think of was that Ray had saved my family and selflessly saved so many, I knew that I would do what had to be done to see that that man was recognized for the hero that he was. I may not have remembered Ray well from Fort Smith, but who he is was dead obvious to me, and by wed morning I felt compelled to make the Facebook post that I made, I felt that despite wanting to tell the entire story which dwarfs what I wrote on facebook, I wanted Ray to know how i felt, and when i could not hold back my joy at being alive and my gratitude for what he did, I posted this:
On Facebook on Wed Aug 16th at just about 10am, I wrote a public post:
I dont know if it has been mentioned but i want to say this online and publicly : Ray Shields, you are one crazy SOB. You saved my wife , my brother and my life. you probably saved 100 people with the crazy stunt you pulled on the highway at Pattersons as fire 52 tried to eat us all alive. so many of those people probably dont even dont know you saved them or who you are, but you did and I know your name. I want to tell you in person and shake your hand someday soon. so if you see Ray Shields around, shake his hand or buy him a coffee because that man is a hero and saved a lot of people including me and my family. Words are not enough.
Tuesday night We all waited for fire SS052-23 to consume Hay River on the beach while fire SS069-23 was eating some of Salt river as an appetizer, getting ready to consume the main course, my home, Fort Smith, hoping beyond hope that we could somehow get out eventually, and that night as I thought about how my home of Fort Smith was about to burn down and tried to come to terms with letting it all go, then.... a Fort smith resident posted that it was raining. Raining!!! At the very last minute another miracle! My mind was not handling the roller coaster very well, and as I watched the storm churn above us, I knew despair, because here it was NOT raining, it was making dry lighting and striking everywhere and I felt another pang of despair, thinking of all the new fires it would start and how hopelss stopping this madness would be without real rain.
then over the lake, I could see it start to rain,
and it moved in closer and rained, rained hard, I was standing there in my clothes outside watching the sky and and as the rain came down my face so did more tears, but tears of joy, I ran to my camper to put on my rain jacket, as i slipped the sleeve of my raincoat on, it began to hail. Then Heidi, soaked and covered in hail bounded in, and the hail intensified to a roar on our camper, we looked at each other both crying and laughing hysterically, and the more we laughed the harder the hail fell, the harder we laughed. An hour and half later and it was over. It hailed nearly 2 inches of hail on us and that fire.
I slept that night knowing that hail was our ticket out, and planned our next escape as I fell asleep with a smile.
We finally got out of Hay River on August 15th, driving through the carnage that fire 52 left in its wake, the vehicles, the animals, the community of enterprise all destroyed, this time we drove through the fire and it was asleep. There was only one spot of open flame, so much devastation, We ended up safely in High level, registered at the evacuation center, we are still there now, and I continue to model wildfires supporting the ongoing efforts to evacuate most of the South Slave and North Slave regions including the entire city of Yellowknife. I was overjoyed to hear from Troy, Ray's son, that Ray got out safe. I think That's Karma.....