Caught in the fire: Johnny Neeposh talks about his Eastmain forest-fire experience

On hand to protect his family’s cabins and camp, Mistissini’s Johnny Neeposh contacted the Nation and spoke about being alone in the bush with the wildlife in this incredible tale of survival.

Here is his account from trapline M25, near Eastmain.

“I went to check on my cabin as we have a lot of cabins up there and I stayed for a little over a week to check up on the fire and these cabins and put out a fire here and there. We had a ‘chalet-rond’ given to us by SEBJ and we didn’t want it to burn down.

“There was a time when the fire came close to our camp. The day before the fire got very close, I had already put out one fire. I was up there all alone. My brother George had given me a water pump and this is what I was using.

“I had got it out at around 9:30 in the evening and was very tired and so I rested. The very next morning I went back to check to see if the fire had stayed out but I knew something was coming as the wind was picking up. When I got to where I had been the day before, a big fire was already raging.

“My son-in-law had arrived at around 2:00 am and I told him that we had to stop the fire by making a fire line. So we went to do this but the fire was travelling so fast with the wind that I told him that we should get the pump set up instead.

“We set the pump up by a little road going down to a lake where I had my boat ready in case the fire got to be too intense and I had to get away. But, by the time we got the pump set up, the fire was almost 100 feet from the house.

“I started to spray water and as I began to put the fire out, I knew it was going to be impossible to stop it. So I sent my son-in-law away in my car to the camp where his wife and kids were. I wanted him to get his family out to safety.

“When they finally left, I fought the fire for a while and it finally got to be across the road where I was. I was still spraying so I could give them the time they needed to go.

“Finally I pulled out and jumped into my canoe and went out into the bay. But the smoke was so thick that I could see only 15 feet ahead of me. The only thing I did was look at the spot where the sun was reflected and went around and around in the bay, trying to get some clearance out into the big lake.

“Finally I had the clearance I needed to get out from the smoke as I could see some land and so I went out into the big lake.

“When I got there, I remembered something my father had always told me, about what people used to do a long time ago when they were in the middle of a fire. This was something that I used to ask him about.

“He told me what they used to do and you know, at my age, these things tend to come back.

“The first thing he told me was to look for an island, not a big one but a small one. If there is a west wind, go on the south side of the island because the smoke will hit the trees and go up into the air. Behind the island there will be less smoke.

“He said that when you go behind the island, look for a thick moss, something you will see as a bump along the shore. When you get it, make some holes in the moss, big enough to fit your nose and mouth and when you do this make several holes in it along the shore because the moss will act like a filter for the smoke. When the smoke gets too thick, put your mouth and nose into the holes and breathe in there. That way you are not going to breathe in the smoke.

“So, I was thinking about this but I had a mask with me but still, I found an island and stayed on the south side of it. There was fire all around me on both sides. The lake I was on was not very big, about average size.

“While I was there I began to get thirsty and so I went to get some water from my boat. As I grabbed my bottle and turned around, all of a sudden I noticed a sandy point with a big rock and standing right beside it was a bear.

“He was looking right me. I don’t really know what came over me, I just said to myself, how about that!

“I had remembered a time where I had asked my father what he had wanted to be in the afterlife, to which he had always answered, a bear.

“I thought of this in my excitement. The bear looked at me; he wasn’t very far away, maybe about 100 feet.

“The smoke and debris was coming in from the mainland, there were leaves blowing by with the fire as the wind was so strong. So, I went to get my life jacket and put it in the water to put over the gas tank on my boat in case something fell on the gas tank. I looked again but I did not see the bear.

“So, I said to myself, now what do I do.

“I took my axe with me just in case, so that it couldn’t sneak up from behind. It wasn’t a big island and so I went around and then from standing in the middle, I could see the ends of both sides. I could see that the bear was gone.

“The most amazing thing was that there was fire on the north side so maybe he swam towards the fire or he swam to the next island over but I should have been able to see him swim over to it.

“But I didn’t.

“So I waited. I was on the island for quite a while. Finally at around 8:00 pm, the winds died down and the smoke began to lift and so I went back to the land where I came from, on the sandy beach.

“When I got there I was so surprised because everything was gone, nothing survived. The skidoo, the cabins and absolutely everything else was gone.

“It happened very, very fast. We lost everything.

“A friend of mine from Nemaska came to look for me and when he arrived he was very happy that he had found me alive and well.”