“I’m not leaving,” said Ira Robinson, who lives in Clinton, B.C.
As wildfires continue to burn across Canada, residents say they will stay to defend their homes, while John Gradek, a McGill University lecturer who has studied Canada’s wildfire response, says the country needs to rethink how it prepares for increasingly intense fire seasons.
“The old strategies that we used to have 15 or 20 or 30 years ago just don’t cut it,” he said.
There are now approximately 193 properties on evacuation order and 104 properties on evacuation alert due to the Fiftynine Creek wildfire in the Thompson Nicola Regional District.
The Village of Clinton issued an evacuation order for all properties within its boundaries Friday.
Robinson said if flames reach his community, he and others will use whatever equipment they have to protect their properties.
“Whether it’s a bulldozer, whether it’s an excavator, whether it is a grader, whether it’s a tractor with a bucket on it, we’ll fight it,” he said.
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Resident Herbie Kennedy, described the situation as “a little unnerving,” while Lee Longtree said he plans to leave early because his wife has dementia and the smoke is becoming too dangerous.
Gradek said the number and intensity of fires, including those near Boston Bar, B.C., show how rapidly conditions can change and are becoming “the new normal” as climate change creates hotter, drier conditions.
He said the biggest concern is not the amount of land burned, but how quickly fires are growing.
Gradek argues Canada has become too focused on responding after communities are threatened rather than stopping fires before they reach homes.
“Our strategy for firefighting is evacuation,” he said.
Instead, Gradek said governments should develop a long-term national wildfire strategy that determines how many aircraft, helicopters and firefighters are needed, where they should be positioned and how they can respond more quickly as fires ignite.
Gradek said provinces often react only after fires become emergencies, leaving communities scrambling to evacuate rather than containing fires earlier.
He added that Canada lacks a coordinated national approach to wildfire planning.
The fires come in a season after Ontario reduced its emergency forest firefighting budget to $150 million for 2026-27 after spending $271 million the previous year.
Gradek also said Indigenous communities should receive more support to carry out forest management practices, including prescribed burns, which he said have helped reduce wildfire risk for generations.
“Let them be the keepers of the boreal forest,” Gradek said. “I bet you we’d have a better season.”
– With files from Amy Judd, Global News
That you Ira. ?
So it looks like an old man swore at fire fighters trying to get him to leave. They did. Then he called back begging for help because now he realizes how brutal these fires are. That you It?
Carney cut half the jobs at the nerve centre for managing forest fires.
On the bright side, the people who stay could save a fortune on cremation costs.
Just common sense to be proactive.. but then there seems to be a lack of that these days. This is not a new message. People have put forward the same position in the past but govt. bureaucrates know better until science has to intervene. Then everything old is new again.
You life, toy choice. Stay or leave all up to you.
As for those who think government should supply hoses, ect,ect. Government does NOT have MONEY, except taxpayer money. And this taxpayer thinks you should buy your own, as you chose where you live. Firebreaks and roof sprinklers, get them for yourselves
ThecFederal & Provincial Govts should provide community pumps, fire hoses, hand tools & communication devices.
I would be doing the same thing too. WE are the most valuable resource they have. Those who know what to do. I’ve been there before. Government sure the hell ain’t doing anything!
Those on here shaming those who have the courage and guts to stand and fight, go back to your mommies basement and her big tattie. Leave the real people to do battle.
The pine beetles killed so many trees. Then the government refused to let them be harvested. Wanted the deaders to rot naturally. Well, this naturally brought wilder forest fires with so much yummy fuel.
Naturally, the NDP have forgotten they made this dumb a$$ decision.
Weird, with wildfires not being put out because of lack of equipment, you would have thought people would have created fire breaks between the forest and their houses, but nope.
One strategy that we had years ago: Use gigantic water bombers to put out fires……would work perfectly well in today’s ‘fire climate’ …oh….darn….we don’t have any ! They were decomm’d before replacements were ready. still not ready!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Set up sprinklers around the houses out there!
REAL SMART, STAY AND D I E ! OR LEAVE AND LIVE !!! CAN U SAY D U M B and DU M BER ENOUGH TIMES
Yeah sure, hand over the forests to the pyromaniacs. They never ‘managed’ forests. Its all hocus pocus.