Meet the firefighter from Sandwich who fought Canadian wildfires this summer

When Sandwich firefighter Nicole Madden, 29, arrived in northwestern Quebec in June to help fight the Canadian wildfires, the people in Normétal had already been evacuated twice.

"We were doing a service not just for the environment, but for the people as well and it felt really good,” said Madden, adding that the residents were very appreciative.

Madden, along with her crew, successfully put out all the fire in the area.

The 29-year-old is a Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) wildland firefighter, who just returned home from a two-week deployment to Quebec, Canada, where she was fighting some of the more than 70 wildfires that have been raging for the last few months.

Madden was part of a crew of 16 wildland firefighters — 14 from DCR and two from MassWildlife — who were joined by four additional firefighters from Connecticut and one from Vermont.

The crew spent 14 days working directly on the fire line — building fire breaks, securing fire perimeters, containing fires and protecting structures.

“The wildfire issue has affected us as a whole nationally and internationally. There is no single agency, state or even a country that can actually manage these large situations on their own,” said Dave Celino, chief fire warden, Massachusetts DCR.

The wildfires in Canada this year have been out of control. According to Celino, it takes an entire network that includes states like Massachusetts and counties like Barnstable, and all of the training resources from within those participating agencies to respond.

The crew spent around 16 hours in the field each day.

The primary objective was to seek and destroy any active smoke or fires.

“We had to make sure that the fires were all out, because if a fire sat there for months, at the end of August, when it is really dry, it can just burst back up out of the ground,” said Madden.

If a fire is allowed to burn in a remote area, even if it starts out far away, it starts building and building, and then the fire will feed itself and then it becomes a problem, said Madden.

Originally from Binghamton, New York, Madden started with AmeriCorps, Cape Cod at the Cape Cod National Seashore in Wellfleet. She spent 11 months working for the fire management officer at Marconi Beach, Wellfleet. There, she learned fire training, prescribed burns, chainsaw projects, and various other community work, she said.

In Canada, she put all the teachings into practice.

“I've learned about it in my training, but actually seeing it in the field and understanding that what we were doing was very important work; it was a rewarding experience,” said Madden.

Madden worked for AmeriCorps Cape Cod from the fall of 2017 to summer 2018, working on community-based projects as well for the Natural Resources Office for Joint Base Cape Cod. She later came back in April of 2020 to work in the Massachusetts Army National Guard's Natural Resources & Integrated Training Area Management Program.

Madden started with DCR District 1 in May of 2023 at the Shawme-Crowell State Forest and currently she's been doing community outreach programs in both Sandwich and Mashpee.

Rescuing equipment abandoned in Canadian evacuation efforts

On the mission in Canada, the crew also looked for equipment left in the field. When the wildfires started in Canada, the spread was rapid. There were thousands of lightning strikes at once, even within a single day.

Local firefighters were busy trying to simultaneously put out the fires and evacuate people, as a result, equipment was abandoned.

“It was really helpful for us to go there, it gave some of their guys some breaks; they've been out there for so long,” said Madden.

The crew was working with a Canadian organization, Société de protection des forêts contre le feu (SOPFEU), which provides forest fire protection.

The bond between crew members was integral to respond to stressful situations

Going into the mission, Madden didn’t know any of her soon-to-be colleagues.

During their mealtimes and breaks, the crew members spent significant time getting to know each other, said Madden, talking about their experiences as firefighters, but also as individuals.

“We all have different experiences and any situation that was thrown at us, we were able to successfully deal with because we knew each other's strengths and we could build each other up,” she said.

Established in 1949, the Northeastern Forest Fire Protection Compact was designed and developed with Massachusetts as one of the founding states, said Celino.

“This year is a great example of why that compact was formed,” said Celino. “All the New England states and the state of New York, along with all of the eastern Canadian provinces are members of the compact, and it's the oldest of its kind in the United States and Canada.”

Rasheek Tabassum Mujib writes about health care and education. Reach her at rmujib@capecodonline.com.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Sandwich firefighter Nicole Madden fought wildfires in Canada