CBC50%
Watching for wildfires: The lonely job of B.C.’s last fire lookouts 30%
By CBC Docs0%
5/20/2026, 6:59:44 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 27 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Anecdotal, and Confirmation Bias, with Halo Effect as the most egregious example at 20% saturation with 88 hits. Analysis detected 922 faulty-reasoning hits from 439 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 39.9% and a BS Rank of 30% (11,772 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 70.00% of the article peer group.
“Lookouts are pretty simple,” says B.C. fire-watcher Bart Vanderlinde.
“You have a guy looking for a forest fire 12 hours a day.”
High atop Sinkut Mountain in northern B.C., Vanderlinde begins each summer day the same way — scanning the forest for smoke.
“You get up, get out of bed … grab the binoculars and scan around,” he says.
Vanderlinde is among the last fire-watchers in the province.
Where more than 300 lookouts once formed an interconnected network, he now often finds himself keeping guard alone.
The Last of the Lookouts is a portrait of a profession that will soon be obsolete.
It follows Vanderlinde during what may be his last summer on the job.
As of 2025, most of B.C.’s watchtowers had been decommissioned, replaced by new technology — including aerial detection — and improved public reporting.
The rhythms of Vanderlinde’s daily routine — taking readings of the weather, safety check-ins, making meals, household chores and repeatedly scanning the horizon — offer a glimpse into the craft of fire detection and the solitude of a life of observation.
Whether it’s his jerry-rigged outdoor shower or upkeep of the tower, proof of Vanderlinde’s resourcefulness, humour and self-sufficiency — and of how suited he is to the lifestyle — is everywhere.
“Being outside and looking at the land just come naturally up here, but it’s something I’ve always enjoyed,” Vanderlinde says in the documentary.
“I’m not a rock climber — not a strong hiker — but I just like being outside, observing Mother Nature.”
Vanderlinde speaks with quiet authority about his career of more than 50 years with the B.C.
Wildfire Service.
Following his time as a young man working on remote lookouts along the Alaska Highway, Vanderlinde co-ordinated aerial fire operations.
“It was a fun job.
I always wanted to be a ranger when I was a kid,” he says.
“I retired as an air-attack officer — I directed air tankers on forest fires.
So I did that for 23 years.”
But apart from Vanderlinde’s expertise, the documentary captures something more human, as he navigates the steep stairs of the tower, takes his daily medication, and jokes about the struggles of aging.
In moments of reflection, Vanderlinde feels the weight of being among the last practitioners of a dying craft.
And when asked what he’ll miss most about the work, his answer is simple: “I would miss the nature — just being outside and looking at the world go by type of thing.”
Watch The Last of the Lookouts on CBC Gem and the CBC Docs YouTube channel.
Analysis
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