B.C. mayor pushes province for wildfire season review
Posted September 6, 2023 7:35 am.
Last Updated September 6, 2023 8:19 am.
People who lost homes to one of B.C.’s most intense wildfires ever are expected to start returning to their properties in the Shuswap on Wednesday, with many getting their first look at the damage.
North Shuswap evacuees are set to begin a staged reentry process after more than 200 homes in the area were either damaged or destroyed by the rapid spread of the Bush Creek East fire last month.
The Thompson-Nicola Regional District is also expected to downgrade an order still affecting dozens of properties along the west side of Adams Lake. However, access will be somewhat limited with the main road through the area closed for 12 hours daily for BC Hydro repair.
Meanwhile, the mayor of a B.C. community that was devastated by wildfire 20 years ago is speaking out, pushing the province for a third-party review of the scope of this record-breaking fire season and how it has been handled so far.
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Ward Stamer is the mayor of Barrière, which burned in the 2003 wildfire season. That year’s fires also set records and prompted a major provincial audit and review, setting the tone for wildfire response and management in B.C. since.
“With the unprecedented wildfires throughout our Province in 2023 that are destroying more land, homes, and infrastructure than ever before, it is important for the government of British Columbia to recognize its responsibility in analyzing each fire and their respective crew responses in order to learn and be able to improve future wildfire outcomes,” Draper writes, in an open letter to Premier David Eby.
“[This] review should include a committee consisting of local elected officials from affected areas, wildfire experts from other jurisdictions, BC Wildfire Service representatives as well as nonpartisan representation from the BC Legislature,” he continues, adding that a summary and initial recommendations should be shared with the public before the 2024 wildfire season.
Stamer tells CityNews that he’d like to have a non-partisan committee review the handling of the wildfire season, similar to what was seen in 2003.
“After what’s been transpiring around here, I thought it was necessary to remind the government of their responsibilities. That includes not only asking for a review to begin immediately and having local officials and First Nations in that review, but also to protect all the information that happens during the fire,” he said.
He says recommendations made 20 years ago — including one that urged fire crews to knock down new local fires within 24 hours — are still being used today.
“All the fires that have occurred in the valley this summer have been successfully put out in 24 hours. Yet, these other fires that the BC Wildfire Service is responsible for, they seem to want to take a whole lot longer to attack them for a wide variety of reasons, and then we end up having large fires,” he explained.
“I’m asking for a review so we can look at what’s actually going on on the ground, why are the determinations being made, and things like that.”
Related Video:
As of Wednesday morning, there were 415 active wildfires across the province.
More than 44,800 square kilometres of BC have burned so far in 2023.
