The BC government wants municipalities to follow the lead of Logan Lake and become a Fire Smart community.
Speaking on the NL Morning News, Forests Minister Katrine Conroy, says there is $90-million sitting with the Union of BC Municipalities as part of Budget 2022. The money is meant to be used as grants to communities so they can start the FireSmart process.
Conroy says it will help makes homes and communities safer from wildfires.
“The FireSmart people will come into the community and they’ll show people the issues that are potential hazards,” she said. “Our Regional District had funding and they had people come out. In fact, I had someone come to our house and they pointed out things that need to be changed.”
Conroy says the 2022 provincial budget also includes $145-million over three years to move the BC Wildfire Service from its current reactive model to a more proactive one.
“What we also saw was the effects that FireSmart work had had on communities like Logan Lake, where they’ve been doing this for many years,” Conroy added, noting the 2021 fire season was one of the most erratic ones in the province’s history.
“You could actually see where the fire came up to their community and it turned away because of the fire breaks and the other mitigation work they’ve done around the community.”
Logan Lake was designated as Canada’s first FireSmart community back in 2013.
“We really really want to encourage other communities to reach out because if we can share our story and if we can make any other communities any safer, that’s what we want to be doing and I think that’s what we need to be doing,” Mayor Robin Smith said in August.
She says her community saw the benefits of all of that work when the Tremont Creek fire forced the community of about 2,000 people to flee their homes on Aug. 12, 2021. No structures were destroyed even though the fire burned into Logan Lake’s municipal limits.
“There was a lot of work done by community leaders and they are not always politicians,” Smith added. “A lot of them are just leaders in your communities that are doing other jobs that take on pieces of the puzzle and what that looks like. We today are seeing the benefit of what that can do.”
“If there is anything we can do to be of assistance to any other communities that want to get on board, and get working on FireSmart, we are happy to help.”
Nearly 870,000 hectares of land was burned during the 2021 fire season, the third-worst on record. Only the 2018 season where 1,354,284 hectares of land was burned, and 2017 where 1,216,053 hectares was burned were worse.
– With files from Victor Kaisar
