THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
Bart Hartop guides attacks from the sky on forest fires in the NWT.

Bart Hartop of Fort Smith sits in a Turbo Commander 840 aircraft on which he was recently flying as a fire attack officer with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

Hartop is an air attack officer with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR).

"To me, it's the greatest job in the world. I just love it," he said, adding with a laugh, "I mean, the view from my office is great."

While someone else pilots the aircraft, Hartop sits in the right seat of a so-called birddog, which oversees up to several water bombers, planes dropping fire retardant, and helicopters.

"Basically, our job is to manage aircraft in the air for safety purposes and to provide safety to crews on the ground," he said, adding he assigns areas for the water bombers to attack.

The birddog first flies a "dummy run" on the route prior to the water bombers to ensure it is safe.

"Everything takes place at treetop level, so you want to make sure that it is safe," said Hartop, adding that means there is nothing in the way and visibility is good.

Plus, he helps make sure ground crews are safe from any danger of being hit by material dropped by the water bombers.

To do his job, he communicates on four different radio frequencies with water bombers, helicopters, the tanker base, and regional dispatch.

Hartop first became an air attack officer in 1997 and worked for three summers with ENR before moving on to the private sector.

However, he returned in 2005 and each forest fire season – basically from about the first week of April until the end of August, although that could be extended – he has worked as an air attack officer ever since.

"That's my summer job," he quipped.

Hartop has a clear sense of the importance of that job.

"When I worked for industry, I missed that," he said. "I missed that sense that we were serving – as corny as it sounds – the greater good."

For instance, when he worked at a diamond mine, he said it was basically about making money for shareholders and trying to reduce costs to improve dividends.

"I missed going out and doing things that would provide help for other people," he said. "It is a good feeling about protecting communities."

However, being an air attack officer has its challenges.

For one thing, Hartop explained it means living out of a suitcase during fire season and being ready at a moment's notice to go fight a new fire, adding that's the same for the pilots of the birddog aircraft and the water bombers.

Plus, he said it means long days of work.

However, Hartop enjoys the work for a number of reasons.

"More than anything else, I work with a great bunch of guys," he said.

That includes ENR employees, and pilots and other workers with Buffalo Airways, which contracts some planes to the GNWT and maintains government-owned aircraft.

The 63-year-old Hartop, who is originally from Ontario, has lived in the North for 41 years and in Fort Smith for 39 years.

In that time, he has worked at numerous jobs – as an assistant resource management officer and forest fire fighter with the federal department, a general works manager with Wood Buffalo National Park, an instructor for a mineral processing program last year at Aurora College, a manager at Northwestern Air Lease Ltd., an employee of Diavik Mines, an environmental consultant and even as a beekeeper.

Somewhere between all of that, he completed a degree in forest management through Aurora College in 1999.

Plus, he earned his pilot's licence when he was 27 years old. In fact, flying runs in the family. His father was in the air force during the Second World War, and his son is currently a pilot based in England and flying with Cathay Pacific Airways.

With his varied background, Hartop has a lot of jobs to compare, and he doesn't find working as an air attack officer to be too stressful.

"I've done other jobs which I found worse, way worse," he said, explaining that, as a manager, he continually was being asked to cut back and save money, and it was affecting people's jobs and lives. "And that bothered me a lot."

As a nationally-certified air attack officer, Hartop can work outside the NWT, and he has done so with ENR fire fighting teams sent to help in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.