Case Study: 2008 Nova Scotia Porters Lake and Lake Echo Wildfire - The first sign of social media and misinformation in an emergency | Host Tim Conrad looks back at his first wildfire as a public information officer

00;00;12;20 - 00;00;34;18
Bruce Frisco
Good evening. We begin tonight with breaking news and frightening news for a great many people in the Halifax area. Tonight, what began as a lovely, albeit windy, day in and around the city has become a smoky and destructive day because of a brush fire out of control east of Halifax that spread with the wind, the highways. It starts with a brush fire.

00;00;34;18 - 00;00;48;10
Unknown
Now, as you can see by the pictures, there's huge clouds of smoke. Indeed, the fires are burning tonight in Bridgewater Town. Talon, Windsor and Milton are the one getting the most attention. This hour is a major blaze in Porters Lake.

00;00;54;14 - 00;01;12;04
Tim Conrad, APR
It was the following Monday. After patiently waiting with other new hires, I was called to meet one of the managing Directors of communications to begin the first day at my new job. The conversation with my managing director was brief, lasting under five minutes when I felt a tap on my shoulder as someone entered the room. You have fire experience, right?

00;01;12;06 - 00;01;30;12
Tim Conrad, APR
She said. I need them. You're coming with me. Two hours later, I was sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck on the side of a highway, talking to the incident commander, still wearing my nice new outfit. The tie came off shortly after, and over the next six weeks, I walked through the challenges presented by this wildfire while also thanking those who jumped in to help.

00;01;30;24 - 00;01;45;19
Tim Conrad, APR
In this episode, I review the 2008 Nova Scotia Porters Lake and Lake Echo wildfire, which was my first wildfire working as an information officer. I'm your host, Tim Conrad. Welcome to the wildfires, Floods and Chaos Communications podcast.

00;01;54;06 - 00;02;12;17
Tim Conrad, APR
The wildfire started on June 13th, 2008, and swept rapidly across 2000 hectares until it reached the Atlantic Ocean. It move faster than any in recent history, tearing across the area loaded with lakes and homes, resulting in immediate tactical evacuations. Or the get out now. We'll send the legal documents later. Kind.

00;02;12;17 - 00;02;31;23
Tim Conrad, APR
About 5000 people were evacuated, including many students who, although had finished school for the day, were evacuated in the opposite direction of most of their parents, who had yet to return home from work. Luckily, despite this being the largest wildfire in almost 40 years and Nova Scotia, only two homes were lost.

00;02;31;23 - 00;02;40;03
Tim Conrad, APR
The evacuation forced many people to go in the opposite direction of their normal patterns, such as going away from the city instead of towards it as well.

00;02;40;04 - 00;03;04;24
Tim Conrad, APR
The routes around the fire were painful, taking some people several hours, often driving on roads they had never been before. As noted, parents who may have been at work in Halifax had to figure out where their children were and how to get to them. Normally that's an hour commute, so it wasn't an easy task when 5000 people have been moved to all sorts of areas throughout the communities around them.

00;03;04;27 - 00;03;27;12
Tim Conrad, APR
While emotions were rightfully high, I was quite impressed with how many handled the stress of the very visual fire, which created a massive cloud that was easily seen for most of Halifax. The wind was topping 100km an hour that day, following a long dry stretch which left downed trees from the 2003 hurricane Wan ready and ripe to burn.

00;03;27;14 - 00;03;43;13
Tim Conrad, APR
80km an hour is what the fire was clocked at as air crews flew into the fire zone. I'll never forget the eyes of the initial attack crew, describing what they saw as they flew up and tried to find a safe spot to land. The flames felt like they were looking at the bottom of the helicopter, said one of them.

00;03;43;16 - 00;03;57;01
Tim Conrad, APR
Another chirps in. We usually land behind the fire and work our way to the front, but the back was already over eight kilometers away, said the other. Here is incident commander Mark seaward, describing what he saw on arrival.

00;03;57;25 - 00;04;16;10
Mark Saywood
Got there around 4 to 430. And at that time, fire was on its way. And we had very high winds that day. And a lot of the fuels were very dry. So we were facing, extreme fire behavior. Really very early on, from the initial call.

00;04;16;15 - 00;04;40;00
Mark Saywood
When I arrived on the fire, I was actually on the, east side of the number seven highway and was trying to get to the west side of the number seven highway. And at that point, shortly after I had arrived, it had jumped the number seven, and I couldn't get across. And that, 107 highway, as you can appreciate, is several hundred feet wide.

00;04;40;06 - 00;05;02;21
Mark Saywood
And, that fire, it actually creates its own weather as well. So in addition to the, to the high winds that were taking place, it's creating its own additional winds and what they call, firebrands, which are, twigs, etc., that are, that are on fire, they get carried up into the air and can very easily jump, long distances like that as well.

00;05;02;24 - 00;05;18;07
Mark Saywood
So that was how it was able to not only jump the 107 highway in addition to the to the smaller number seven, but also we had to jump down, in one of the southern lakes were dumped, probably about 4 to 500m across, and had to dump fire there as well.

00;05;18;07 - 00;05;31;18
Tim Conrad, APR
Halifax is the capital city of Nova Scotia and is a regional municipality with over 400,000 population. At the time of the wildfire fighting, the fire was a joint responsibility of the municipality as well as the Department of Natural Resources.

00;05;31;21 - 00;05;53;29
Tim Conrad, APR
Halifax Fire had a mix of volunteer and paid members in that area, and multiple paid stations nearby. Provincial Natural Resources provided an initial attack with a crew and helicopter from the Shubenacadie base, 60km away, and was backed by another helicopter and ground crews from throughout the province. Quickly, fixed wing aircraft from outside the province would fly here to assist

00;05;53;29 - 00;05;58;01
Tim Conrad, APR
The main evacuation center, Cole Place, is known to many Canadians.

00;05;58;03 - 00;06;23;13
Tim Conrad, APR
It's the home of hockey superstar Sidney Crosby. This recreation facility with multiple ice surfaces was positioned perfectly for this incident, as the roads for residents to escape on both lead. No matter which direction you came from to this facility, the evacuation center served as a main information hub for residents. Information meetings were held. A media briefings were also completed at this site.

00;06;23;16 - 00;06;44;18
Tim Conrad, APR
I remember my colleague saying after that, having the media briefing at the same location as the evacuation center really didn't work well, and at times the information meetings were out of control. Our provincial spokespeople took on hundreds of media interviews, barely sleeping in the first few days. To no surprise, the pace was exhausting for those information officers.

00;06;46;20 - 00;07;04;28
Tim Conrad, APR
Hey there. I have a special offer for you. Jump over to Canadian training, okay. And subscribe to our newsletter. Receive discounts and early access to our new training platform, which will launch this fall. What's more valuable is we will send Canadian training, okay subscribers, free guides, checklists, and more that you can use in your home, work or volunteer roles.

00;07;05;00 - 00;07;13;18
Tim Conrad, APR
Canadian training aka learning from mistakes. Someone should sign up now for those free resources.

00;07;13;18 - 00;07;19;14
Tim Conrad, APR
weeks later, the cause of the fire was determined to be a campfire, which had not been adequately extinguished.

00;07;19;16 - 00;07;38;23
Tim Conrad, APR
Despite a lengthy investigation, there was insufficient evidence to support any charges to set the stage for what communications was like at this time. Well get ready for a trip down memory lane to the heydays of traditional media. Twitter was just two years old. Facebook had under 100 million users worldwide.

00;07;38;23 - 00;07;40;13
Tim Conrad, APR
Netflix was an infant,

00;07;40;13 - 00;07;44;29
Tim Conrad, APR
meaning cable ruled and local and provincial newspapers were in expansion mode.

00;07;44;29 - 00;07;46;04
Tim Conrad, APR
Very few governments were on

00;07;46;04 - 00;07;49;14
Tim Conrad, APR
any of the few social media channels, as they were still thought of as fads,

00;07;49;14 - 00;07;52;03
Tim Conrad, APR
and certainly not a fit for governments.

00;07;52;03 - 00;08;04;25
Tim Conrad, APR
A higher than normal amount of misinformation was spreading during the for an immediate period afterwards. When I began on day four, the fire was largely under control, but the rumors were just beginning to burn.

00;08;05;19 - 00;08;26;21
Tim Conrad, APR
It's time for a moment, a moment to memorialize the media that we had in Halifax back in the 2008. The Daily News had just closed down in February of that year, putting 92 staff out of work. This left the Chronicle. Herald is the remaining daily newspaper for Halifax. In October, they were named one of Canada's top 100 employers by Media Corp..

00;08;26;23 - 00;08;52;20
Tim Conrad, APR
In February of 2009, the paper laid off 24 employees. A quarter of their newsroom, and the first layoffs in their 136 year history. While it remained the largest newsroom east of Montreal for some time, the layoffs would continue for decades until their parent company went into creditor protection in 2020. For a weekly paper, the coast provided investigative stories and a quick look at local news and events, but was not considered a primary news source.

00;08;52;27 - 00;09;14;21
Tim Conrad, APR
News 95.7 was the only dedicated radio news station in the city. CBC radio broadcast news regularly throughout the day, along with longer news programs. Around ten other radio stations across the city split news into their broadcasts from the newswire and during big events. At least one station would stay live on the air to broadcast updates on the emergency, such as this wildfire.

00;09;14;27 - 00;09;39;03
Tim Conrad, APR
Halligan yakka was just starting as a hub for local information and news, although like then and today, they have no journalists on their staff. Global, CBC and CTV all had their daily news programs, with Cbc-Tv either having a noontime news or late news as well between radio, television and newspapers. That was how most residents got their news in Halifax and across Nova Scotia at the time.

00;09;39;08 - 00;10;01;15
Tim Conrad, APR
Today, the late night news is gone on all television stations. The suppertime and morning news programs have been cut back substantially. The Chronicle Herald was bought out by Postmedia and now runs with just a handful of staff. News talk radio is dead and you'll catch the weather and traffic on the radio, but not much for news as only radio jockeys remain.

00;10;01;17 - 00;10;21;04
Tim Conrad, APR
The coast is still going as a weekly, and the upstart how Ligonier survived at all. I couldn't find anyone who agreed with me back then that they would survive and thrive. But let's face it, none had the foresight to see that the internet and social media were about to dominate them. The many journalists I work with back then.

00;10;21;06 - 00;10;40;13
Tim Conrad, APR
Well, like many. They jumped from hack to flak, where they also couldn't avoid layoffs or the unbearable force of technology working them out of their job. Some are still in it as communicators, but many moved on to other careers. For those journalists that are out there that used to be part of this group, if you're hearing this, I miss you.

00;10;40;15 - 00;11;02;17
Tim Conrad, APR
I miss the barrage of questions I missed when a reporter knew more about the topic than the spokesperson. And I miss the important role you held in holding our democracy to a higher standard. To the media executive who told me in 2008 that I was a fool for believing that newspapers would not survive in web 2.0. You owe me $20 if you can afford it.

00;11;02;20 - 00;11;10;21
Tim Conrad, APR
This is a sad reality for thousands who once worked in this important industry. No news is no longer good news.

00;11;12;14 - 00;11;38;25
Tim Conrad, APR
This became more evident as the fire investigation became the focus. I remember it quickly becoming a frustration for my colleagues who had led the response, and we dealt with a continual stream of sometimes unusual questions about everything from available resources to perceived dangers of fire retardant. After all, I was brand new and using their laptop to write news releases and key messages on a bench outside of a community hall.

00;11;38;27 - 00;12;09;01
Tim Conrad, APR
I started collecting notes on any of these oddities, which came at us in a consistent pattern, often rising from nothing to feverish. Within hours. They had begun almost immediately, including posts telling parents the wrong locations to pick up children who had been evacuated and that horses and other animals were killed by the fire. Weeks later, I was given the task of finding sources and I began scouring discussion boards Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and wherever I could find a rabbit hole to take me.

00;12;09;04 - 00;12;30;25
Tim Conrad, APR
Not long into my search, I identified some local Facebook groups which had shared information which was then put on other platforms. I found no misinformation in traditional news sources beyond those which sought to find what was the truth behind the rumors and posts. After narrowing down about 30 source sites, I began looking at the users who had shared or were the original posters of the information.

00;12;30;29 - 00;12;49;19
Tim Conrad, APR
A reminder this was during an era when nearly every user was public on most channels, so it was really easy to source and look at where this person was from. Just over a month after the fire, I was able to definitively say that over half of those who were creating and posting information into local community groups were not residents of the area, or even the province or country.

00;12;49;24 - 00;13;11;06
Tim Conrad, APR
I could find no connection to any of those users and the area. Another quarter were in Canada, but not Nova Scotia, and the remaining actually lived nearby. Among my discoveries, I found some had used images from previous events in other locations, while others had manipulated real information released by emergency responders and had even claimed to be from specific streets when they were posting.

00;13;11;08 - 00;13;40;02
Tim Conrad, APR
So really trying to pose as locals, I was shocked by the level of manipulation during an emergency event and by how easily it had spread on various channels, sometimes having over 20,000 likes, comments or shares. It was my first taste of a new world of deception that we would all be forced to accept as the norm. Soon after, in my role as information officer, I provided regular updates in what remained of the first week after the wildfire, answering media and elected officials questions, visiting local gathering spots and capturing images of the scenes.

00;13;40;04 - 00;13;54;19
Tim Conrad, APR
That included my first helicopter ride. On my second day of work, which ultimately made some of my colleagues so jealous, they began to spread rumors about me at my new work. I guess you could say I was in the deep end of deception. Luckily, I love to swim.

00;13;56;07 - 00;14;25;02
Tim Conrad, APR
The winds were very high on the Friday and Saturday, and the wind subsided a bit on Sunday, which really, gave us the opportunity to, get a foothold on the fire. And by that time, of course, a lot of the resources that you had ordered, that we had ordered, had time to come in and, I think that's when the tide started to change was, on the on the Sunday morning, for sure.

00;14;25;02 - 00;14;49;26
Tim Conrad, APR
Playing for so close and so hot that they melted the windows so they won't open, and it warped the aluminum door on the back of the house. So the the flames were very close. It could have been so much worse, you know, when, again, when when you look at the fire and see how close it came to houses, you know, those guys, I, I can only imagine the battle they had on their hands, the fires.

00;14;49;28 - 00;15;06;25
Tim Conrad, APR
And, I don't think for us, their living on the street will ever be able to put into words how we actually feel. Because I mean, you can say thank you. You can say thank you a thousand times, and it still doesn't express what I'm feeling inside. To say anything at all would be belittling them because they did so much.

00;15;06;28 - 00;15;30;27
Tim Conrad, APR
I mean, the coordination. We found my wife and I, that is, and probably everybody else is talk with them. They got together so well. It was so well-organized from the volunteers all the way up to the professionals. Everybody got along so well with each other. There's no bickering, no complaining, no nothing. Get the job done. Getting to know firemen, anybody who had anything to do with, saving our community is welcome at my door.

00;15;30;27 - 00;15;43;16
Tim Conrad, APR
Any time, day or night. 724 365 I'll offer them beer or any other refreshment that they might want forever. It is just something that we cannot, ever say thank you enough.

00;15;44;11 - 00;15;51;28
Tim Conrad, APR
In my days visiting Linville Lake and Lake Echo areas, I noticed the signs of appreciation were appearing to grow overnight.

00;15;52;02 - 00;16;12;15
Tim Conrad, APR
Thank you. Signs were on lawns, fastened to buildings and stretched across school fences. They were written on anything. Dozens of residents would stop me as I visited areas wanting to tell their story and thank responders. One day it took me nearly two additional hours to leave an area that I was working in because I was overwhelmed with neighbors walking up and wanting to tell their stories.

00;16;12;16 - 00;16;32;02
Tim Conrad, APR
There was little doubt these communities were very thankful for firefighters and other emergency responders, which highlighted an opportunity I took back to the office. We decided to put on a big thank you barbecue at the now closed evacuation center, giving the community an opportunity to meet and thank hundreds of volunteers and responders. While my focus continued to be on the ground.

00;16;32;02 - 00;16;41;13
Tim Conrad, APR
The team got planning for the thousands of people at this event. We had little issue finding supporters to help with costs, along with volunteers. It was such a magical moment.

00;16;41;13 - 00;16;52;29
Tim Conrad, APR
As we began, we realized we needed to highlight the incredible challenge the communities had just experienced, while also having a signature piece that we could share with responders even if they couldn't attend.

00;16;53;00 - 00;17;18;08
Tim Conrad, APR
Dubbed the Thank You video, I know picked creativity there. We had videos from residents and firefighters, interviews that I had arranged with residents and incident command staff, along with my photos, which were combined into a wrap up video which left even the toughest in tears. A few weeks after the wildfire, the event was held with a resounding success that had strong attendance from residents, media and responders.

00;17;18;11 - 00;17;26;15
Tim Conrad, APR
Almost ten years later, in the middle of the Rockies, some 6000km away, I would lead the creation of a similar event for the very same reason.

00;17;26;15 - 00;17;31;25
Unknown
order evacuation order for. We had to start packing up. Closing.

00;17;31;25 - 00;17;48;11
Tim Conrad, APR
This was my first use of video in a disaster, as up until then it was cost prohibitive to produce almost anything especially fast. The impact certainly was not lost on me. One firefighter after another walked up with tears in their eyes to give me a hug, after they had received the same from residents.

00;17;48;17 - 00;17;54;20
Tim Conrad, APR
I also was welcomed in as an honorary firefighter and you'll even find me in some of the group pictures with crews.

00;17;55;11 - 00;18;22;13
Tim Conrad, APR
Hello to our listeners in India and to listeners in these communities. Plymouth, England, Coquitlam, British Columbia, Dublin, Ireland. And Gurman. I'm Germany. Hopefully I did okay on that. Forest city, North Carolina and thank you for listening to our podcast. We have a global audience with listeners in over 30 countries and 300 cities. Wherever you listen, whether it's Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music.

00;18;22;15 - 00;18;32;07
Tim Conrad, APR
Please subscribe and give us a review. Of course, please share with a friend by sending them communications podcast.com, where you can also sign up for our newsletter.

00;18;33;22 - 00;18;37;23
Tim Conrad, APR
Here are some of my top lessons from the Porters Lake. Lake echo wildfire.

00;18;37;23 - 00;18;50;07
Tim Conrad, APR
You never know how good you have it until you do not. Within two years, social media rose to dominate traditional media, resulting in a complete loss of control over misinformation, which is now fed by a global effort to deceive.

00;18;50;10 - 00;18;58;15
Tim Conrad, APR
Media relations is still important today. Yet by comparison, I now believe we spend more of our time and effort pushing out our own media.

00;18;58;15 - 00;19;10;05
Tim Conrad, APR
I can tell you it isn't better than what we used to have then. It requires much more work and often comes with many more pain points. Number two, I learned the value of spokesperson policy and training for all staff during this event.

00;19;10;06 - 00;19;30;29
Tim Conrad, APR
While I'm not offering details, one responder did an unsanctioned interview with media and provided them with confidential information related to the investigation. Respect media and the relationship you have with them. It was thanks to this relationship that they showed me the unsanctioned interview and asked if it was appropriate. Thankfully, due to the content being confidential, they did not broadcast it.

00;19;31;01 - 00;19;52;02
Tim Conrad, APR
I needed to give them some exclusive stories to fill in that gap and thank them for their cooperation. Years later, that relationship with that reporter paid off again. Remember, you must always be planting seeds. Number four, knowing the incident command structure, along with unified command is important if you want to work emergencies. It is a complex web and you'll get lost quickly.

00;19;52;04 - 00;20;16;07
Tim Conrad, APR
Number five knowing a firefighter is important if you want to know the terms, equipment and conditions. Even though I was brand new, I quickly fit in due to my previous experience as a structural firefighter where I had been an information officer on large emergencies a few times. Number six, the community is where strategy begins. It took me years to realize this, and when I did, my time there on Candy Mountain Lane immediately popped back into my memories.

00;20;16;09 - 00;20;39;07
Tim Conrad, APR
It was here that listening to the community resulted in a successful strategy being created for them. The thank you video, the event all came from the community. It was driven fully by them. Number seven daily updates are important and keep the community calm and prepared. We provided updates constantly, sometimes multiple times a day as the fire was active and 100% through traditional media.

00;20;39;10 - 00;20;58;25
Tim Conrad, APR
It worked well for us, but we'd soon need to adapt to social media. Lesson eight never devalue the likelihood of an event when planning for potential emergencies. This was the first of a series of events I would have a role in across Canada, none of which were ever considered as likely events. Yet they all happened much like this one under a year later.

00;20;58;28 - 00;21;20;25
Tim Conrad, APR
I was leaning against the commander's pickup on the other side of Halifax, where another wildfire destroyed four times as many properties. That wildfire was done years later and twice in 2023, demonstrating we are in a cycle of more frequent and more devastating events. Thanks for joining me for this case study of the 2008 Porter's Lake Lake wildfire.

00;21;22;14 - 00;21;43;07
Residents
approximately 95% of our community was evacuated during, during the whole fire. So we have nothing but appreciation and heartfelt thanks to everyone who who helped us out. And, you know, we hope that, in the future that people have a new appreciation for, for all of the people who worked so hard for us.

00;21;43;09 - 00;22;09;00
Residents
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for seeing our community. I have now thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for everything.

00;22;12;05 - 00;22;34;12
Tim Conrad, APR
I want to dedicate this episode to the many emergency responders, volunteers, staff and all who responded to the porters Lake and Lake Echo wildfire. Of course, my thoughts still go to those who lost property and just really were traumatized by that fire. Looking back on this made me relive the experience we all shared in our own unique way.

00;22;34;14 - 00;22;53;15
Tim Conrad, APR
My thanks to the province of Nova Scotia for the footage and the amazing colleagues I worked with on this incident, especially those who helped me on that learning curve that was attached to a helicopter. Thank you for listening. I really appreciate you taking the time to learn from our podcast. Do you have suggestions for a guest or topic or maybe some feedback?

00;22;53;18 - 00;23;14;11
Tim Conrad, APR
You can write to us a communications podcast.com where you can also leave a review wherever you listen, whether it's Spotify, iTunes or Amazon Music. Please subscribe and share with a colleague or friend. We really do appreciate it. Remember, we also have a newsletter that will give you more information, and we put up transcripts, links and information from our guests on our website.

00;23;14;12 - 00;23;39;07
Tim Conrad, APR
Thank you for joining the wildfires, Floods and Chaos Communications podcast. If you like this episode, check out season one, episode two Inferno Insights with Mike lupine. This is a production of Butterfly Effect Communications Incorporated. We are masters of doom and gloom, disasters, emergencies, crises, and issues. We can help you get ready or get through them. Although we can help you with any public relations we don't have to do at an emergency speed.

00;23;40;02 - 00;23;52;15
Tim Conrad, APR
Engage, educate, expand with butterfly effect communications. Thanks for joining. Remember to pass this episode along to a friend. Goodbye. Hear me later.