DOUGLAS, Mass. - Central Massachusetts native Tyler Desautels was one of eleven firefighters from Massachusetts who responded to help fight wildfires in Canada.
"In Quebec, they were hurting for man power badly," he said.
The crew from the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation spent two weeks relieving firefighters, putting out hotspots and preventing more fire from spreading.
"We were actually replacing 110 French army soldiers," Desautels said. "We'd fly in on helicopters and go in four of five man squads and they'd set us up in the middle of the woods with a pump site"
Desautels was tasked with working out of the country on unfamiliar terrain with different tactics, alongside international partners.
"A lot of moss and swampish areas," he said. "Here in the states, we like to dig hand lines and separate the fuels down to mineral soil to stop the fire from burning."
The Oxford native is also a call member with the fire departments in Millbury and Oxford. He said wildfires back home, like the one at Mount Pisgah earlier this year, helped prepare him to work with members outside of his own department.
"Because of the complexity, they brought in a task force, which I guess you could relate to bringing in other countries, or hand crews, firefighters from other departments from across the Commonwealth, coming in to help for a common goal," Desautels said.
DCR Chief Fire Warden Dave Celino said mutual aid like this is crucial when it comes to the wildfires in Canada, which span more than 25 million acres.
"Large, large fires that are now at the point where there's no way you are going to catch up to them," Celino said. "It will take, what we call a season ending event, like a lot of rain or snow."
Help from local firefighters like Desautels better prepares first responders to answer the call back home.
"We bring tactics and strategies that we've learned elsewhere and they learn from us, and that's a great success story from a mobilization like this," Celino said.
The relationship between Massachusetts and Canada is part of the Northeast Forest Fire Compact between the New England states, New York and all five eastern Canadian provinces.