By Luke Faulks, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Matt Nelson knew he wanted to fight fires since he was in Grade 7. His teacher, now-Lil’wat Nation’s Chief Dean Nelson, was a firefighter before moving to teach at the Xet̓ólacw Community School in Mount Currie. “He planted that seed,” Nelson remembers. Now, Nelson features in Wildfire, a five-part documentary series from Knowledge Network set to premiere on April 29. The series’ final episode interviews him for his work as part of the last remaining all-Indigenous fire crew in B.C.—the Salish Fire Unit, based in Lil’wat First Nation. In 1988, The BC Wildfire Services (BCWS) started to partner with Indigenous communities around the province to build up local fire-fighting capacity and create employment opportunities. The Salish Unit in Mount Currie, founded in 1989,…
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