The recent close call at Tsiigehtchic had what appears to be a happy ending. Cool, wet weather has contained an immense forest fire and Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development (RWED) is to be praised for keeping it at bay.

But the raging fire that doubled in size in the space of just a few days of hot weather has produced as many lingering questions as it did smoke. Tsiigehtchic residents, and even Mackenzie Delta MLA David Krutko, have criticized the government for not doing more to fight the fire at an earlier stage -- particularly because it grew to the point where it's been burning land that belongs to the Gwich'in, as well as Crown land.

RWED explained that it maintains a set of criteria, guidelines by which it decides what action to take against a fire. This blaze began in an area abundant with lakes and was slowed because of a cold July. Fighting a fire takes money -- one thing we've all been hearing that the government has too little of -- and by August this fire had grown to the point where fighting it was a virtual impossibility. In the end, forestry management chose to go the route of strategic operations against it, protecting buildings in its path and creating control lines free of fuel.

Whether the decisions made at the fire's outbreak were proper or not will doubtless remain open to debate. But what is perhaps more important now is examining how the fire affected Tsiigehtchic and what happened during those critical days two weeks ago.

The community had plans to evacuate to Inuvik if necessary, but then the threat of the fire jumping the Dempster made them consider Fort McPherson. Chief Grace Blake gave credit to RWED, but also complained about the lack of communication with the government and with Yellowknife during a critical time.

Tsiigehtchic's own emergency measures plan is now being reviewed. Perhaps this is also a good time for the government to have a look at its own policies and procedures and, most important of all, to address Tsiigehtchic's concerns and questions. The government must ensure that its emergency response strategy is as streamlined and efficient as it can be.

Because of RWED's forestry management team, no lives or structures have been lost to this fire -- but the people of Tsiigehtchic also lived through some very smoky, hot days.

It certainly wasn't an exercise in futility.

The multi-agency "mock disaster" held in Fort Simpson last week proved that the RCMP, fire department and health centre staff are quite capable of handling a small plane crash such as the one they staged.

The exercise caught most residents by surprise and attracted a number of people to the airstrip to try to get a look at the proceedings. Rumours quickly circulated about what might have happened. Some people have even complained about the exercise, contending that it wasn't necessary to get people worked up for nothing. Well, it wasn't for nothing. Without practising for such an occurrence, there's no possible way to know how local emergency response teams would perform under similar circumstances. If everyone knew precisely what was going to happen and when, and simply showed up for the sake of showing up, what would that prove?

Of note, the firefighters were without their chief, deputy chief and captain. They also had three newcomers amongst their ranks, but still came through in the clutch -- not just during the exercise either. Three days earlier most of the same crew responded to an intense trailer fire and contained it before it got out of hand.

There were some humorous aspects to the exercise, though. 'Victim' Shawna Kidd did an amazing job of wailing in agony for close to an hour. Afterwards, she said she hopes her convincing performance won't be forgotten at Academy Awards time.

Although the firefighters weren't told there would be an exercise at 9 a.m., they were given the heads-up to expect something at some point on Friday. On the other hand, RCMP Const. Charles Quartey wasn't forewarned of the exercise and naturally assumed the accident was the real thing. He was admittedly baffled by the absence of skid marks behind the plane, how calm Simpson Air owner (and onlooker) Ted Grant remained, and fire Chief Pat Rowe's refusal to lend a hand despite being only a few hundred feet from the accident scene. Rowe was observing and evaluating the exercise. Despite initially being unaware, Quartey remained composed and even remembered to tell me to stay back from the scene. Pesky reporter!

By the way, practically everyone, including myself, was using the term "mock disaster" to describe the exercise. Technically, as Dr. Shane Barclay has pointed out, a "disaster" overwhelms the available resources. This one was designed to put them to the test, but was manageable. By all reports, they performed admirably.

Kudos to Ted Grant too, for allowing one of his airplanes to be used for the exercise.

Thanks to the DCFN

Due to an oversight on my part, the Deh Cho First Nations never received credit for two photos in last week's paper. The DCFN, through James Sergeant and Denia Lamothe, supplied the picture of the chiefs and elders (in the photo spread) and the one of Shirley Bonnetrouge. My thanks to them.