The Juniper East Evacuation route that connects Kicking Horse Drive to Valleyview Drive. (Photo via City of Kamloops)
The City of Kamloops has added more spaces to the Juniper East Emergency Evacuation Route tour that takes place this Saturday, July 29.
This as Communications Manager, Kristen Rodrigue, told City Councillors on Tuesday that there has been a good amount of interest in these tours from residents in that part of Kamloops.
“There are limited number of spots available so we are encouraging residents to carpool with neighbours to allow the most number of people to attend as possible,” Rodrigue said.
“Registration is required and residents need to register separately for the east and the west tours. We did open up a few extra spots for the east tour and there are still lots of spots for the west tour.”
Both the Juniper East and Coldwater Drive emergency routes will be open between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday, giving residents a taste of the process that will be used in the event of an emergency. The Juniper East tour will take about 20 minutes while the Coldwater tour will take about 10 minutes.
The Juniper East exit connects Kicking Horse Drive to Valleyview Drive while the Coldwater Drive emergency route connects to High Canada Place in Rose Hill.
A third emergency exit – on Galore Drive that also connects to Rose Hill – will not be a part of this weekend’s drill, with work on another permanent route connecting Qu’Appelle Boulevard and Rose Hill Road expected to be finished by 2025.
Highland Road, the only current permanent access route into Juniper Ridge, will also be used to evacuate people, if needed.
Work on these new emergency exits began after the Canada Day fire in Juniper back in 2021. While it did not destroy any properties, a number of people who were trying to flee the flames – particularly from Juniper East – were trapped in their vehicles on Highland Road due to a lack of available escape routes.
A map showing exists from the Juniper Ridge subdivision of Kamloops. (Photo via City of Kamloops)
Fire Chief Ken Uzeloc told Radio NL there are plans for similar evacuation drills in other Kamloops neighbourhoods in the future.
“The GIS department has done a really good job of mapping out different areas and we can see how people are in there and pre-plan what routes out of that community would be best, depending on where the emergency is and which direction its moving,” Uzeloc said. “That work has continued beyond Juniper.”
“It’s going to be something that we’ll be evolving obviously based on the risk. Juniper is one of the higher risk areas so we’re starting there.”
People can register for one or both of the Juniper tours or familiarize themselves with the emergency evacuation route information and procedures online.
