This past weekend was the busiest so far in the young fire season in B.C., and the premier is expressing concern about the summer months.
John Horgan says after two of the worst fire seasons in B.C. history, he is definitely worried.
“We had the first fires of the year back in April which is well beyond what’s a normal fire season.”
Horgan says Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth was in the Interior over the weekend with Emergency BC and the BC Wildfire Service, to make sure the province is as ready as can be.
“We’re modernizing the intake for example. If we have to evacuate communities again as we did in 2017 and 2018, as hard as it is to imagine the system being used at that time was a paper-based system.”
He also says they will get help from other countries, if necessary.
“I think we’ll be in a better place to assist communities should there be another catastrophic fire season but we’re always worried about that. We have our feelers out to other communities to have help arrive when needed. What we do know from previous two years is that the world — Australians, Mexicans, Europeans — stand ready to come and help B.C. if we need it.”
A lack of rain in the months of May and June set up conditions for record fire damage in 2017 and 2018.