RIP

Coroner's recommendations 'too late' for firefighter Adam Yeadon, sister says

CBC
Tue, October 22, 2024 

Firefighters walk down a dozer line in this 2023 photo. (NWT Fire - image credit)

The sister of a young man who lost his life fighting wildfires near Fort Liard, N.W.T., last year hopes recommendations released by the territory's chief coroner help save lives in the future.

But for her brother, 25-year-old old Adam Yeadon, they "came too late."

"It's good that the coroner investigator did do all these recommendations," said Donna Deneyoua from her home in the hamlet on Friday. "I don't want another family to go through this pain, like it's hard to get through."


The N.W.T. Coroner Service issued nine recommendations for Yeadon's employer, the Department of Environment and Climate Change (ECC), last week. The coroner service is not allowed, by law, to lay blame for deaths. Instead, it tries to prevent a similar type of circumstance from happening again.

ECC accepts recommendations

Mike Westwick, the territory's manager of wildfire prevention and mitigation, said Friday that ECC accepted all of the coroner's recommendations. He said they were either already part of the territory's fire program, or were in the process of being carried out.

For example, Westwick said the department was working on a manual of standard personal protective equipment for its forest management division and that it was also procuring firefighting helmets the coroner described as more protective.

Westwick said recommendations about when to use the incident command system and what type of firefighters carry out different activities were already part of its operations. He said making sure all crew leaders had 'danger tree assessor' training was done for the 2024 fire season.

Westwick said danger trees are any tree or any part of a tree that could fail because of a defect or damage. He said the territory had moved from a half-day awareness course on the topic to a full-day assessment course.

Family's questions

Though the coroner's recommendations give Deneyoua some hope a death like her brother's won't happen again in the future, she said her family is still grappling with questions about what happened.

For example, Deneyoua said Yeadon had learned how to operate a chainsaw as a teenager and had always been cautious while helping her husband with his wood hauling business.

"They say that Adam said 'we're walking into a bad area.' Like I don't know why they kept going because every time we're falling trees and cutting wood, every time Adam would say like this doesn't look safe, and then we'll walk away."

Deneyoua also said the family had thought Yeadon was a "trainee" firefighter and was under the impression he had been laid off just days before he was killed by a falling tree out in the field.

Westwick said Yeadon had not been laid off and that he had been a Type 1 firefighter.

"He was part of our key crews out there. He wasn't an extra firefighter," he said.

Forests and fires behaving differently

Garth Eggenberger, the territory's chief coroner, said in an interview with CBC News the recommendations highlight the struggles firefighters face — and the intense environment they work in.

He sees what happened as a learning opportunity for firefighters themselves and for the territorial government as well.

"We're in an era of climate change and the forests are reacting differently," he said.

"The conditions on the ground that [firefighters are] working in are way different than even five, 10 years ago."