Osprey Silviculture identified as the mystery fire crew who put out Mount Paul house fire

Photo: Tim Petruk

Osprey Silviculture and Wild Land Fire crew and Kamloops Fire Rescue firefighters at the scene of a house fire on July 30 on Salish Road on the Tk'emlups reserve.

The mystery team of firefighters who extinguished a house fire on the Tk’emlups reserve have finally been identified.

On the evening of July 30, emergency crews were called to a home on Salish Road, near the Halston Connector. However, when Kamloops Fire Rescue crews arrived, they found a team of wildland firefighters on scene who had already put out the blaze.

A a fire information officer with the BC Wildfire Service said the agency had no record of any of its crews helping out. Calls to multiple Tk’emlups te Secwepemc officials turned up similar replies.

However, Noah Desjarlais, a firefighter from Osprey Silviculture Operations Ltd., reached out to Castanet Kamloops after a story on the incident was published, saying his crew was headed back to camp after a shift when he spotted the smoke.

“I’m driving and I noticed the smoke. So I said to my crew, ‘that shouldn't be there, right?’” Desjarlais told Castanet Kamloops.

He radioed the rest of the crew who were in another vehicle ahead of him, and they agreed to check it out.

Desjarlais said when they arrived, the fence was on fire.

“We just took it upon ourselves to go into action,” he said, adding that he believes the cause of the fire was a generator encased in wood that blew up.

The Osprey crew ensured everyone was out of the house, but while assessing the situation, Desjarlais said he noticed fire hazards too close to the flame.

“I noticed there was a bunch of fuel on the ground like propane and jerrycans, so we made sure we grabbed that and put it on the road a long way from the fire,” he said.

“My crew boss, he decided to jump the fence to go on the other side and chop down the fence so that the fire wouldn't lead to the main house.”

While the crew boss, Seth Rebko, disconnected the burning fence, Desjarlais said he and the other members worked putting the fire out.

According to Desjarlais, the flames were aggressive.

“It was quite big, the flames probably got to about eight feet tall,” he said.

“It was lucky it didn't spread too much, but we were able to put it out before the municipal firefighters came.”

Despite already finishing their shifts, Desjarlais said he couldn’t just wait for KFR crews to arrive.

“We just felt the duty to do it,” Desjarlais explained.

He said that by the time KFR got there, it could have been much worse.

“It was really intense and it was climbing fast. There was a bunch of fuel all over the place," he said.

“It would have been a lot worse if we weren’t there in time."

While the Osprey Silviculture fire crew’s actions were seen as heroic, they weren’t around long enough to collect their praise.

Desjarlais said they got out as fast as they could, and let the responding KFR crews handle the rest of the situation.

“Municipal [crews] came, RCMP came, they relived us and they did their thing. And then we just went back to camp, and that was all said and done.”