These two guests have an unenviable common tie – they are both mayors of towns that have been devastated by wildfires. Melissa Blake is the mayor of the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo, Alta., which includes Fort McMurray, and was forced to evacuate herself. Mitch Campsall is the mayor of 100 Mile House, one of the areas hardest hit by this summer's wildfires in British Columbia. The evacuation order for the town was lifted late last week. They spoke to host Duncan McCue and each other about their experiences.

Listen to their conversation:

Duncan McCue: Mayor Campsall, can you give us any updates on 100 Mile House? What's the situation there today?

Mitch Campsall: We've still got a few areas under evacuation. Mother Nature isn't playing nice with us, now we've got big winds going on. I just saw the helicopters going up again and so that gives you a little more fear, but we've got people in their homes and they're on alert. I don't think we're going to be taking the alert off for the rest of the summer. Our forests are twice as dry as it's ever been and it is in a very bad spot right now. Fear is out there, the fear of losing it again. I'm trying to make sure that people realize that you might be home, but be ready to go and keep an emergency bag ready to go.

DM: You said that signing the evacuation orders for 100 Mile House was one of the hardest things you've had to do in your life. What was going through your mind at the time?

MC: The good part is the fact that we're getting our people out and making sure they were safe, but that was the day I really believed we were going to lose our town. I cannot even imagine what Fort McMurray went through. We went through a bit of a crisis, but we're not even close.

DM: Let me draw Melissa Blake into the conversation – I'm guessing what you're hearing from Mayor Campsall is sounding familiar?

Melissa Blake: Very. He got me with that last point of thinking that the town was going to be lost. I know we had that feeling on our big evacuation day more than a year ago.

DM: Mayor Campsall, I understand that officials from Fort McMurray have been sharing information about what they learned. What kind of help have they been sharing?

MC: You got to learn lessons from what they've done and how it's worked out and you also see what our community's about and our geographical differences. We took a lot of their ideas and melted them with others. We took the stuff that went really right from Fort McMurray and we're using it.

MB: Believe me, you're going to want to know our problems too because it's through that that we learn. The successes that we had overall were outstanding, but we learned from the community of Slave Lake, who about three years earlier had gone through their wildfire. It was the lessons that they learned that brought us the greatest value.

MC: It's going to be a long period of recovery. It's not something that's going to be overnight. It's really tough. I was lucky that I was able to stay here and I went to the different communities where people were and just made sure that people were being taken care of. We had supplies coming down from Fort Mac and we can't be more thankful.

DM: You've had volunteers coming from Fort Mac, is that right?

MC: We've had volunteers, truckloads of food and water. It's amazing.

MB: Because of our experiences, we know that that overwhelming support that came from right across this country is what got us through that really difficult period. We couldn't wait to give back and pay it forward. We saw that spontaneously happening in our community; there was no mandate.

DM: Mayor Blake, do you think we are doing enough for wildfire prevention?

MB: No, absolutely not and we probably never will be able to. This is nature's own way of taking care of things. We've been working to prevent wildfires for decades through Fire Smart, but you still saw the consequences. I don't think we can ever defeat nature, so I think it's up to us to be smart and think about how we can mitigate the risk. If I can give one strong warning to people, if you buy your property near forestry, you need to understand the most secure way of ensuring your home is going to be okay is to have a barrier between yourself and the forest.

DM: Mayor Campsall, the evacuation orders are starting to lift – that must be a huge relief – but we're not out of the woods yet. How worried are you about the rest of the summer?

MC: We're pretty worried. We're not even in fire season yet. It's scary and people are very scared of what's coming at us. We've worked on fire prevention, but you can never do enough. The only way to do it is to have a 20-mile fire barrier around your community and well, that isn't going to happen. Mother Nature is going to find a way, but we've got to do everything we can to be fire smart.

DM: Do you have anything you want to say to each other before I let you both go?

MB: The closing comment I have for you dear mayor is that you're in recovery now, just like us, and resilience is going to be the key to getting your community through it. So no matter what comes, stay strong and carry on.

MC: You got it. All I have to say is thank you for your experience, it helped us. I hope we never stop learning from each other. This is something I learned that I didn't want to learn.

MB: Any way we can, for you or any other impacted community, we are willing to pay it forward - whatever we can do.