“You can’t see anything, it stinks”: Successful ski coach Rufener goes on wildfire missions in Canada

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Forest fires are not only raging in Switzerland. Of course, Martin Rufener (64) is also concerned about the violent events in Wallis, which have been going on since Monday evening. But his focus is also on Canada. As a trained helicopter pilot, he has already been deployed there for two blocks of three weeks this year. Now he is back in Switzerland. “There’s no comparison,” he says.

From 2004 to 2011, Rufener was the successful head of alpine skiing for the Swiss skimen led by Didier Cuche, Didier Defago and Carlo Janka. Previously, he was the head coach of the Canadian men’s and US women’s teams and coached the Swiss women’s team. From 2013 to 2020, he lived with his family in Canada for seven years, where he was Alpine Director. At that time he repeatedly went to Switzerland for helicopter missions and was also deployed there on forest fires.

Much greater distances – different requirements

Now it’s the other way around: Rufener has lived in Switzerland again since 2020, but goes back to Canada for heli missions. He tells Blick about his impressive experiences: “There are a lot of these fires in the north, where no one lives. It can take three days for someone to notice. And then the wildfires are like a giant roller.”

The helicopters therefore fulfill surveillance purposes and water bombers with much more capacity are deployed in the large forest areas. In Switzerland this is often different because of the topography, here it is often only possible to extinguish with helicopters.

The May deployment block in the province of Alberta made a particularly strong impression on Rufener. “It was a huge fire. We were there with more than 40 helicopters, they came from all over Canada. I flew there for five and a half hours, over the Rockies. The mission lasted two or three weeks.” Most triggers in Canada are lightning strikes and radio waves along the railway lines.

Rufener came to the challenging missions in Canada because he is over 60 and is no longer allowed to fly people in Switzerland. His chapter at Air Glacier is therefore over. “Luckily I had dual citizenship and was able to refresh my certification in Canada. First I flew heli-ski missions in the winter, then they said I had to come in the summer too.”

But Rufener is considering whether it makes sense to go another block to Canada. Firefighting operations are going down in terms of health. “I was in the smoke for three weeks, the visibility was only 1.8 km – every day. You can hardly see anything and it stinks – despite the mask.”

What worries Rufener is the timing of events: “The wildfires came almost a month earlier than usual and many fires continue to burn into the fall. It is catastrophic how everything has dried up and unfortunately we will have to prepare for such events in the future. »

Source : Blick