Punishment - help fight fires

I was one of the many who lived through the Okanagan Mountain Fire and also grew up in Northwest Ontario, where wildfires were an every-year fact of life.

I was on a fire line with a water-filled backpack, putting out‘hot spots when I was 14. Before that, I was the bucket-filler for my father’s male crew. Being female and also under age, I didn’t even qualify for the minimal pay.

When is someone (e.g. RCMP/government), going to deal with those idiots who choose to interfere with fire-fighters who are putting their lives at risk to deal with our current batch of wildfires? Right now, most of them are not human-caused ... but there is one where the culprits have been caught. Maybe it's time those testosterone-driven teenagers (and their parents) were compelled to deal with (and pay for) the results of their idiocy.

My experience with the Military Police at CFB Kingston was the fathers were taken to task, the teens were sentenced by the base commander to repair all of the damage they caused, and their fathers (in uniform) were required to supervise their children and ensure that everything was completed to the commander's satisfaction. MPs were responsible for making sure that the commander' orders were carried out, and eviction from base housing was on the table.

If the person involved is a minor, then the parents should serve exactly the same sentence (they created the problem, they get to deal with it) and pay the designated fine. Time on a fire line may adjust their attitudes.

Any idiot that interferes with our firefighters should face the worst our legal system allows. Fires have claimed lives in Alberta, Ontario and B.C.

Christina Johnson