CBC Lite Sections News • Canada • Nova Scotia These N.S. volunteer firefighters have found themselves on the frontlines of climate change Atlantic VoiceMoira Donovan | CBC News | Posted: January 25, 2026 10:00 AM | Last Updated: 2 hours ago Between floods and fires, the Brooklyn Volunteer Fire Department is finding a way forward Image | Brett Tetanish Caption: Brett Tetanish is the chief of the Brooklyn Volunteer Fire Department in Brooklyn, N.S., a small community near the Minas Basin. (Moira Donovan/CBC) (BUTTON) Load image Open image in new tab In May 2023, the members of the Brooklyn Volunteer Fire Department, which sits about 40 minutes outside of Halifax, knew the environmental conditions around them were primed to explode into fire. It was the spring "green-up," a time when emerging buds suck moisture from the surrounding forest, without any leaf cover in the woods to keep the temperature down. For weeks, conditions had been unusually hot and dry. On May 23, Brett Tetanish was conducting a training exercise with his fellow firefighters when he warned them about the risk. “I said that today's a really bad fire day, so let's be ready to pack up and roll if need be,” said Tetanish, the department's current chief. His warning proved to be true. A fire broke out close to the department’s station in Brooklyn, near the Minas Basin, which firefighters quickly extinguished. Not long after, a huge column of smoke appeared on the horizon. That column was coming from a rapidly expanding wildfire in Upper Tantallon, 60 kilometres away. As the fire grew, the firefighters from Brooklyn were paged to Halifax to help protect structures. When they arrived, they found burned out cars and fire lining both sides of the road. "This is a thing that you'd see in Alberta or British Columbia. It's nothing that Nova Scotia ever came close to,” Logan Hope, Brooklyn's deputy fire chief, recalled. LISTEN | Hear what these volunteers are up against: Media Audio | Atlantic Voice : Caption: In the last few years, the work of the Brooklyn Volunteer Fire Department has fundamentally changed. Follow along with these Nova Scotian fire fighters as they face floods, wildfires, and the climate crisis head on. How have they coped, and what happens going forward? A documentary by Moira Donovan. Open full embed in new tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. Brooklyn firefighters spent three days battling the fire — which destroyed 151 homes — before returning home exhausted. In the aftermath of that event, it was clear to members that something had fundamentally changed. “You sit there and think about what you did, and you're like, ‘Oh my God, what did I just witness?’” said Hope. “A lot of people … said that this is a one-in-100-year thing. It's not. It's just the beginning.” Adapt or else The Upper Tantallon wildfire is just one of the climate-related disasters Brooklyn responded to in recent years, placing unprecedented strain on the firefighters tasked with keeping their communities safe. And with more disasters on the horizon, these firefighters are asking how — and whether — volunteer forces can adapt. There are roughly 90,000 volunteer firefighters in Canada, according to the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs. That makes up approximately 70 per cent of the total firefighting forces in the country. This is equally true in Nova Scotia, where most firefighting services are provided by roughly 7,400 volunteers. In Brooklyn, the fire department was started by community members out of an old schoolhouse in the 1960s. Since then, it’s grown to about 70 members. It receives funding from the municipality , allowing it to have better access to equipment than many other departments, but in other ways it’s like every other volunteer force in the province, said Tetanish. Image | Westwood fire / Tantallon fire Caption: A burned-out vehicle in Westwood Hills, a subdivision in Upper Tantallon, that was hit by wildfire in May 2023. (Mary-Catherine McIntosh/CBC) (BUTTON) Load image Open image in new tab Tetanish has been with the department for 35 years, having joined at the age of 14. Since he started, calls in the department have grown from roughly 75 a year to around 500, he said, partly due to population growth in the area, but also, in recent years, from climate change. This isn’t unique to Nova Scotia. A 2023 report from the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs noted increasing call volumes tied not to house fires, but to emergency medical responses, vehicle extrications and "atypical climate emergencies." For Brooklyn, the Upper Tantallon wildfire was the first of these. In the aftermath of the fire, the department decided to use 50/50 money to purchase a sprinkler protection system — similar to those that have been used in California and Western Canada for years — that would allow them to protect structures from wildfires. “Some people thought that we were silly for buying it,” Tetanish said. “But [we decided] we're going to be prepared just in case, and I'm glad we did.” Shortly after those wildfires, another disaster struck. On July 22, 2023, the province was hit by unprecedented rainfall. Image | Windsor flooding Caption: This house in Windsor, N.S., was just one of the structures damaged in a flash flooding event in July 2023, a disaster that killed four people. (Peter Dawson/CBC) (BUTTON) Load image Open image in new tab As the storm progressed, Brooklyn Volunteer Fire Department members began getting calls from people dealing with flooding basements. Those soon turned into people threatened by rising floodwaters. “We were being called to … cars being swept away with people in them, people being swept away, homes being swept away, roads washed out,” said Tetanish. Some firefighters ended up caught in the flood, including Hope, who was dragged by floodwaters while rescuing a woman whose house was washing away. In total, a summers’ worth of rain fell in less than 24 hours, with flash floods inundating parts of the province. In Brooklyn, four people — including a teenager and two six-year-olds — were killed. Floods like these are among the most deadly climate hazards, and the threat is growing as climate change increases the atmosphere’s capacity for extreme rainfall. 'I felt like giving up' In the aftermath of the flooding, Tetanish said the department felt defeated. Yet an important part of the healing for members, he said, was getting equipment and training to respond to future flash floods. Hope, who’d struggled with his mental health after getting caught in the floodwaters, said the training was difficult at first, but ultimately proved helpful. “There's lots of times I felt like giving up, and there's lots of people on the course that were in the same boat, wanted to give up, wanted to just scream,” he said. “In the long run, it helped a lot of people, I think, get over some fears.” Image | Logan Hope Caption: Logan Hope is the deputy chief with the Brooklyn Volunteer Fire Department. (Moira Donovan/CBC) (BUTTON) Load image Open image in new tab In 2025, the department saw their prescience about wildfires pay off. Amid a record-setting drought, a fire broke out in a remote area of Annapolis County. Brooklyn was called to the fire near Long Lake, where they set up the sprinkler protection system on approximately 90 structures. At one point, the fire grew from 3,200 hectares to 8,000 hectares in a matter of hours, leaving Brooklyn firefighters with no choice but to get out of the way and hope for the best. When they went back to see what had happened, they found the structures they’d sprinklered were still standing, while those they hadn’t been able to protect were gone. "It was amazing," said Hope. "It felt like we actually accomplished something against the unstoppable." Still, the fires took a toll. Firefighters were on site for weeks, and shortly after coming home, were called to another wildfire. Altogether, it represented nearly two months that volunteers were fighting wildfires, leaving behind their jobs and families. “It’s certainly something that we need to find a better solution for in coming years, because what happened this summer is just not sustainable for our department,“ said Tetanish. The World Meteorological Organization projects the global risk of wildfire will increase by 30 per cent by 2050. Image | Long Lake wildfire Caption: An aerial view of the northern flank of the fire in Annapolis County, late in the summer of 2025. (Province of Nova Scotia) (BUTTON) Load image Open image in new tab In a 2025 report, the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs noted that 90 per cent of volunteer fire departments across Canada are now involved in fighting wildfires, often for long durations, and recommended the federal government better coordinate with the fire service to address pressures, including from wildfires. In Brooklyn, firefighters have other ideas about how communities can help. Hope said community members should heed emergency alerts and evacuation orders when they receive them. “If you're asked to evacuate an area or you see something that you think you can help with and aren't trained to do it, please, just let us do our job.” Tetanish also said individuals and communities should follow FireSmart Canada, a national program that sets out landscaping and home construction practices to mitigate wildfire risk, noting that structure protection systems like the sprinkler protection system work best with FireSmart practices. “We can do a lot to save homes if people have done the steps to fire smart their properties.” Tetanish also suggested that people consider joining their local department — and to recognize that communities will need to look out for each other in an increasingly challenging climate. “We can't deny what's happening in the world right now, and we just need to come together as a community, as a province and as a country, to look out for each other and help each other through these times.” MORE TOP STORIES * ‘In survival mode': New project aims to support gender-based violence service providers * Parks Canada shuttering Historic Places website, sparking heritage concerns * Nova Scotia Power asks customers to conserve energy due to cold snap * Conservationists warn DFO facility closures could risk future of endangered salmon * Kentville business community throws support behind homeless shelter at public meeting More Stories Like This The related links below are generated automatically based on the story you’ve just read. 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