Nova Scotia·NewFire lookout towers may seem antiquated in light of new technology used to detect wildfires. But some firefighters see the value in bringing them back to Nova Scotia.Towers were decommissioned in 2015 and later dismantled in favour of aerial surveillanceCBC News · Posted: Sep 13, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoThe William Switzer fire tower, located near Hinton, Alta. (Therese Kehler/CBC)Laurence Cameron used to spend his days dozens of metres above the ground peering out over vast swaths of forest from one of Nova Scotia’s 33 fire lookout towers.On one of those days in 1992, years before aerial surveillance made his job obsolete, he reported a wildfire he saw breaking out in the Argyle area from his perch in the Pubnico tower.”It triangulated with two other fire towers and it was a fast response and they were able to contain it quickly,” Cameron said.The towers, operated by the Department of Natural Resources, were decommissioned in 2015 — and subsequently dismantled — in favour of aerial surveillance to oversee areas the towers had stood guard over.But Cameron, now the deputy chief of the East Pubnico Fire Department, and two other members of the firefighting community in western Nova Scotia think the province should consider restoring the former tower system as wildfires become more frequent.It’s an idea that’s been posed by Bradley Peck, a former firefighter in Bear River whose brother used to work as an tower observer in the area.A letter Peck sent to government officials asking that they contemplate bringing back the lookout towers says he believes some fires this summer may have been detected sooner if fire towers still existed. He pointed in particular to the huge Long Lake wildfire that’s been burning in Annapolis County since Aug. 13.”There used to be a tower in Bridgetown … just a thought that maybe that would have been a different outcome,” said Peck. “These are questions that people should stop and consider.”The Department of Natural Resources declined an interview request from CBC News. A statement from the department said the lookout towers were removed because “the majority of wildfire detection was — and still is — happening through aerial surveillance and phone calls from the public to 911 or our provincial wildfire centre.”The statement said the department has responded this season to “147 reports of wildfire,” only a small number of which the public became aware of.”The rest were very small and put out very quickly. That shows that our system works.”An aerial image of the Long Lake wildfire taken last month. (Province of Nova Scotia)The department did not respond before deadline to a followup question seeking further information about how aerial surveillance is conducted.Randall Freeman, who was a fire tower operator in northern Queens County for 18 years, says that a couple of helicopters scanning the province looking for plumes of smoke can’t measure up to the coverage that he and his colleagues provided.”When they dismantled these towers, they had a grid of, I think … 33 or 34 towers from Yarmouth to Sydney at strategic locations that one tower could see into another tower’s area. They overlapped,” said Freeman, who has become a firefighter since his days as a lookout ended in the early 2000s. “They have a much better chance of spotting fires as compared to relying on the public to call them in or aircraft control patrols because you have like eight or 10 hours a day surveillance.”Lookout towers are still used in other parts of Canada, Peck said, including in Alberta, where at least 100 are being utilized.Between 2021 and 2023, those towers detected about 30 per cent of wildfires in Alberta compared to air patrols that detected 11 per cent. Peck said many rural areas have inconsistent cellphone service that makes its reliability as part of the wildfire reporting system questionable.”We live in Bear River, over the hill. Our cellphone service is spotty here. When you go back into the bush, it’s almost non-existent.”He said while some people may consider the fire lookout towers antiquated, he still sees the value in them. “They’re not relics from the past. They’re very useful for today, even though it’s old-school technology.”
‘Not relics from the past’: Some firefighters think N.S. should bring back fire lookout towers
