British Columbia province has experienced the worst fire season on its history in recent months because of climate change drastic effects. Ryan Cail, Kamloops Fire Rescue Deputy Chief said B.C drought level is 5, the worst the province has seen in years, creating unprecedented fire rates, and generating them more easily and with faster growth than traditional ones. As a respond to the issue, B.C Premier David Eby and Bowin Ma, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness declared a provincial state of emergency on August 18 to support ongoing, response and recovery effects cause by the wildfires. They gave the order to cancel non- essential travel to the Central Interior and Southeast of the province to support the needs of wildfire crews, first responders and evacuees. The order included Kelowna, Kamloops, Oliver, Osoyoos, Penticton and Shuswap areas.
Big wildfires such as Kelowna one tended to affect Kamloops surroundings. Kamloops received smoke from the fire by Adams Lake and Rushmore fire which was seen as a large plumb line. Jeff Pont, Kamloops Fire Department life safety educator highlighted that from Kelowna wildfire there were some days with presence of smoke and others where it wasn’t since everything depended on weather conditions and wind. He added that, sending crowds from Kamloops to help Kelowna was a challenging situation as they didn’t want to send everyone they had because then, they wouldn’t have enough firefighters, so their bosses had to manage the balance between being able to help and keeping Kamloops city protected.
However, the outlook in Kamloops has been encouraging as the city hasn´t evidence a drastic wildfire scenario this year in comparison with other British Columbia provinces. Ryan Kail said the balance of wildfires that have occurred so far in 2023 in Kamloops and its surroundings, “KFR responded to 119 landscape fires, 612 fire burning complaints. Which could be a simple campfire or sight of smoke”. In fact, Jeff Pont also emphasized that the city had a handful of reduce size wildfires and they were many small grass fires that proportionally were able to mitigate very quickly from things like abandoned campfires, cigarettes, and things like that, but actual large event grass fires weren’t evident. In relation with this, he highlighted that within the city this year, there were not many homes declared at risk, “Some houses were on evacuation alert but again between the head of that fire where was burning and the city there’s a large area of grassland so that kind of thing innocent us as it acts as a buffer, so within the city this year homes at risk, not partly at all”, Pont said.
Nevertheless, for those who lost their homes in the cities surrounding Kamloops, the outlook clearly hasn’t been encouraging. Many homes and business were destroyed leading to homeless and people seeking refuge in designated evacuation centers including Kamloops. Ryan Cail said many municipalities from the city created reception centers that were able to register and place them in appropriate short-term housing; “This could be hotel or facilities like the curling club at McArthur Island”. However, Jeff Pont clarified that even though Kamloops city counts with an emergency operating center that gets set up and disposes some resources to the evacuation centers, financially they are supported by the province.
Emergency Social Service Reception Center established on McArthur Island Sports and Events Centre (Oct 24/2023)
Although by these dates the state of emergency has ended and most firefighters camps were dismantled, given the seriousness of the situation and the losses occurred in the province, many of the affected people are terribly traumatized. However, they hope to rebuild their houses as soon as possible. Ryan Cail said people affected by the wildfires will be working through their insuring agencies to begin rebuilding. Also, he emphasized that for supporting affected people all participating fire departments work under a provisional agreement called the Inter Agency Agreement in which they adhere to the policy stablished by the province. “When requested through the fire center, Kamloops Fire Department staffs and responds to municipalities accordingly. Just like we did in Fort St John, Kelowna, and Shuswap”, Cail said.
Area where firefighter camp was established at McArthur Island in Kamloops. (Oct 24/2023)
Currently, Kamloops has increased measures to mitigate wildfires. Kamloops fire department uses to build guard with big machines to create essentially full break. For making a break KFD has four stones on one side, a big forest, and a runner machine ripe through it, “You create almost like a road through it, so the fire can´t move along the ground, so it creates a fire break”, KFD safety educator Jeff Pont said. By the same way, Ryan Cail said Kamloops Fire Department trains periodically with partners of BCWS (BC Wildfire service) and provides structural protection efforts when requested. In fact, when weather systems are forecast to be severe, KFR hires additional devices in preparation for electrical systems and strong winds.
In terms of preventions, Kamloops has tried to engage the community as much as possible with fire smart program making recommendations to those living on interface urban areas and asking homeowners to reduce fuel use and restrict water use to maintain tanks full in case large quantities of water are needed to extinguish large fires. Jeff Pont said what they are working the most is trying people remove cedar trees. They can be seen everywhere; they are very risky and what can happen from these fires is that “the burning really hot smokes in certain embers and all the sparks and that stuff can flow 6-10 kilometers away from the fire and then land next to the homes and provoking start those cedars on fires”. He highlighted fire smart program relevance for saving both lives and houses, “With the fire smart plan, homes can be protected. If a forest is around, its burning and home one has being fire smarted and home 2 has not, this home has 80% chance of surviving compared to the other, so if you do nothing there´s an 80% chance against this house that your house would burn”, Pont said. This demonstrates that despite circumstances, B.C and particularly Kamloops authorities count with more advance and effective preventive measures for confronting future wildfires.
References
-(J. Pont, Personal communication, October 10, 2023)
-(R. Cail, Personal communication, October 13, 2023)
-Webster, J. C. B. (2023, 22 septiembre). Nearly all residents have returned home following West Kelowna wildfire. Goldstream News Gazette. https://www.goldstreamgazette.com/news/nearly-all-residents-have-returned-home-following-west-kelowna-wildfire4428653#:~:text=The%20fire%20ignited%20on%20Tuesday,fire%20is%20still%20under%20investigation.
-Crawford, T. (2023, 19 agosto). B.C. Wildfires: Premier David Eby brings in order to restrict travel in fire zones. vancouversun. https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-wildfires-premier-david-eby-brings-in-order-to-restrict-travel-in-fire-zones
