Notes from a July meeting between BC Wildfire Service managers and forest industry executives appear to show deep concerns about personnel and equipment shortages a full eight days before the province declared a state of emergency, but a wildfire service manager suggests different.

The service contends what the memo actually shows is a shift in strategy to have forest companies take care of fires in the backcountry that weren’t threatening people or structures.

The document obtained by NL News said the BC Wildfire Service is focused on protecting life and property, and is not able to prioritize timber values. It went on to say the service needs every available resource as all personnel are working, and reinforcements from out of province and international partners will not be coming, or will be slow to arrive due to COVID restrictions, and fires elsewhere.

Rob Schweitzer, director of fire centre operations, said another line – written in all capital letters that said “very limited air support available” – actually referred to air support for private crews working in the backcountry, and not those protecting people or property.

“If industry was going to accept and take on backcountry fires, there would be limited air support for them on those fires. Because the air support would be directly allocated to fires that are in the front country, threatening communities and homes and major infrastructures. So that was the limited air support line that somebody interpreted and put into the document that way,” Schweitzer said.

“So if the forest industry who we built these relationships with want to work on backcountry fires, ones that are more away from communities and focused more on the timber values, then we’d be happy to work with them and frankly deploy them with limited supervision to go and protect really there investment in timber.”

But when it comes to the White Rock Lake Fire – crews and equipment from Tolko Industries weren’t just working on protecting timber, according to residents and ranchers in Westwold and Monte Lake, who said they were working shoulder-to-shoulder with forest company crews trying to protect people and properties.

Many residents had raised concerns for weeks about a lack of wildfire personnel in the area, ahead of the devastating advance of the fire on August 5 which destroyed 28 homes and one business in Monte Lake and Paxton Valley.

Meanwhile, the memo from the July 12 meeting also pointed to worries that the wildfire season was going to get significantly worse, saying fire conditions were extreme in Kamloops, the Cariboo and the Okanagan, and that hot and dry weather was expected to continue for two months. The final line in the memo stated “it’s shaping up to be a very scary summer in front of us.”

Here it is – internal memo/summary of meeting between BCWFS and forest ind. executives dated July 12th makes it clear BCWFS didn’t have sufficient resources. A prov. SoE wouldn’t be declared until July 20th. #Kamloops #BCWildfires #bcpoli pic.twitter.com/FLF3VGfXVe

— Brett Mineer (@MineerBrett) August 18, 2021