Friday marks the one year anniversary of a fire in the Juniper Ridge area that forced people to franticly evacuate their homes, but the city’s mayor believes it is more prepared for a similar event 12 months later.

Speaking on The NL Morning News, Ken Christian says there are two additional egresses out of Juniper and the fire department has shored up its ability to respond.

“I think a lot has been done, but there is more to do,” he said. “And some of the off-season issues like fuel mitigation and prescribed burns and getting rid of ladder fuels and things like that have been going on.”

Christian hopes homeowners have also done some work to protect themselves, noting he took the time to clean up his own property and reduce the fire risk in the days after July 1, 2021.

“Where we are rubbing up against the interface that we take those kinds of precautions both as a city and as a homeowner,” Christian added. “I know after that incident I did a lot of work with my wife on our property and it was amazing how much fuel you have up against your fence and that kind of thing. So it is important that you take care of your own properties.”

Christian also reminds people to register for the Voyent Alert system which is being used by both the City of Kamloops and the TNRD to notify people of impending disaster.

In addition to ensuring an there is another egress road out of Juniper, the city has also been working on plans for a road connecting Pineview and Aberdeen in case a similar situation occurred there.

CAO David Trawin says that plan remains in the grant application stage.

“We haven’t started anything on it. It is all private property. But it is part of a grant application that we put in which also includes money for Qu’Appelle to Rose Hill Road,
he said. “We haven’t heard anything back from the grant application.

“We keep calling them every couple of months to see where it as and they keep saying ‘still no.’ It’s been almost nine months now and still nothing back.”