Fighting the flames from 1,500 metres above sea level

A gas station near Little Fort, B.C. a small community on the west bank of the North Thompson River was more like a viewpoint on Friday as a steady stream of people looking for gas and some quick relief became fixated on the billowing smoke coming off the mountains.

"It'sreallyterribly unsettling," said Kitty Braaten, who lives just 20 kilometres north in Clearwater.

Along with her daughter and granddaughter, thetrio stare up as a handful of helicopters take turns dousing the fire.

The family isheadedto Kamloops to do some shoppingand to escape the smoke that's filled theirneighbourhood.

"It's just thick. You can hardly breathe," said Braaten.

Theirhome is safe from the flames for now, but the truck is ready to go if things get worse.

"If we gotta go, we gotta go," she said.

"It's unsettling really, because younever can be just normal. You want the smoke to go away. It's summer, you just want blue skies and beach," she said.

Her daughter,RondaMiller,spent a decade fighting fires but gave it up after she became a mother.

Her husband still fights fires and was up fighting the very fire that's now garnered an audience.

Clearwater resident Don Turner looks back at the fires burning just 20 kilometres next to his home.

The fireeveryone is staring at the is called theLittle Fort Complex. It's made up of two separate fires.

Friday afternoon, the Dunn Lake fire is 1,954 hectares in size and is 20 per cent contained. The other, the Thuya Lake Road fire, is 450 hectres in size and 40 per cent contained.

Both have prompted evacuation orders, and a dozen helicopterscircle abovethem, dropping buckets of waterin an effortto contain them.

"Our number one priority is public safety, keeping people safe. The next would be to protect structures, homes, businesses that kind of thing," said Shannon Bond, fire information officer with Parks Canada's incident management team.

The federal agency is here under the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) agreement, which allows provincial and federal fire agencies to call on each other and work together in times likes this.

Ken Lancourpilots one of the helicopters that has been contracted out to carry out aerial firefighting.

All 35 of Yellowhead Helicopters' aircraft are spoken for across B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan.

"It's hot, it's smokey, it's low visibility, multiple aircraft in the air," Lancour said.

But a note left by a resident, only visible from the sky,thanking firefighters makes the job easier.

The busy airspace is managed by a helicopter coordinator, the person keeps track of whether aircraft have hit their target and when they come down to refuel.

There is also coordinationwith firefighters on the ground because there are times more than 1,300 kilograms of water are being dumped from the air.

Lancouris part of the initial attack team, flying 1,500 metres above sea level todrop buckets of water on to the fires.

The fires near Little Fort are mostly ground fires, as opposed to a crown fire, which is when flames are running up the branches of the tree.

When the trees are burning or candling, as officials call it Lancour said it can be too dangerous and ineffective to dump water on it.

"It's burning hot it can cause a lot of swirling winds, and you have ash, smoke, sometimes embers flying at you," he said.

"You can drop directly on the fire and as soon as you turn away, you'll see the fire pop back up again," he said.

Lancoursaid aeriel firefighting is mostly used to slow down or stir a fire; it's still the ground crew that does the heavy lifting.

"It's quite effective slowing things down. But it'sdefinitely the ground crewsthat get on the ground, thatgottadig that thing out and put it out," He said.

"We're there to support them. Helicopters aren't putting out any fires, they're just helping," he said.