B.C. wildfire fighters get trained on rattlesnake safety

B.C. wildfire fighters learned about rattlesnake safety thanks to snake experts from the Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre. (Twitter/BC Wildfire Service)

Vancouver — Wildfire fighters in Oliver, B.C., are being trained on how to keep calm and carry on if they encounter a venomous rattlesnake as they go about their duties.

Two snake experts from the nearby Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre attended one of the firefighters’ evening meetings this week to share important safety information on rattlesnakes.

CTV News Vancouver spoke to the pair from their office, after they’d given the presentation.

“I think we relaxed them a little bit, delayed a little bit of fear that they might have working around snakes,” said John Herbert, an animal care technician at the cultural centre.

“At this time of year rattlesnakes are starting to give birth to their young and … panicking with snakes around when you’re fighting a fire is, I think, double compromising,” he said.

The experts took live snakes with them, and photos of their presentation were shared on the BC Wildfire Service’s social media.

Herbert said he’s talked to firefighters who’ve come across rattlesnakes. As the serpents deal with their habitat on fire, he said, they may be injured or angry and just trying to get away.

“Where these firefighters are, there are rattlesnakes. There's no doubt about that.”

The Okanagan is home to many different species of snakes, and Herbert and co-presenter Barb Sabyan taught the firefighters how to identify the western rattlesnake from others. Counter to popular belief, they say, it’s not by looking for their rattle – as baby rattlesnakes might not yet have a rattle or an adult snake’s rattle may have broken off.

“You always want to look for the very distinct triangular-shaped head,” said Sabyan, an interpreter at the centre.

The rattlesnakes are a federally protected species, and both Sabyan and Herbert say that part of their work is to give people enough information so that they don’t feel the need to kill a rattlesnake if they come across one. Rattlesnake bites are exceedingly rare, they say, and the firefighters’ gear is likely to protect them from getting bitten.

“The people that get bitten are either trying to handle the rattlesnake – which they shouldn’t … or they’ve cornered the snake and left it with no other recourse than to defend itself,” Sabyan said.

But, they did educate them on how to deal with a bite should it happen.

“Number one, stay calm. Number two, if you happen to have a pen … you want to circle where you're bitten and put the time down that the bite occurred,” Sabyan said.

The expert said people who are bitten by a rattlesnake should never try to suck the venom out, nor should they apply ointment, ice or a tourniquet. Instead, Sabyan said they should call 911 and remove restrictive clothing.

“Get to help immediately. If you get bitten by a snake, most healthy people have two to six hours before really serious things begin to occur,” she said.

Part of the need for the education is that popular culture has taught people to be afraid of rattlesnakes, and movie depictions also show people treating their rattlesnake bites in dangerous ways.

“Media has maligned the snake. Through snake fight programs, or (the movie) Snakes on a Plane, or Anaconda, and it's a misrepresentation of this animal,” Sabyan said. “And as a result it instills fear. And when we have fear as human beings, we end up doing things that we wouldn't normally do, and that is harming this creature.”

The snake experts hope that the firefighters, now educated, will simply step around the snakes if they come across them.

“You can just step around them and no rattle snake is going to chase you – that is something they weren’t sure of either,” Herbert said.