A ‘new threat to us’: Kamloops fire chief after B.C.’s record wildfire season

After a record wildfire season in the B.C. Interior, Kamloops Fire Chief Steve Robinson is warning policymakers to be “very serious” about climate change.

Briefing city councillors on Tuesday, Robinson said the wildfires that crews battled this summer were “different” than any he’s observed in the past.

“There were things some of these wildfires did this year — rank five, rank six fire at night — that’s not the norm,” he said.

“We do have to take it seriously, and as a city and as a fire department, we are looking at what we can do to understand that new threat to us.”

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In July, a forest fire forced the RCMP to briefly evacuate their homes in the Juniper Ridge and Valleyview communities.

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At the time, emergency shelters were already full of people who had escaped the devastating fire in Lytton, B.C.

“We saw (climate change) in effect with this heat dome,” Robinson. said. “Five or six days of plus-47 degrees — everything I’ve read says these events will be more common in the future.”

After the heat dome struck, Robinson said Kamloops Fire and Rescue started meeting twice daily in anticipation of possible wildfires. Those meetings began on June 29 — two days before the Juniper Ridge fire.

He told city councillors, he believes that communication helped save homes and potentially lives.

Kamloops Fire and Rescue, he added, is now working on improving the speed of its public messaging in tactical evacuation scenarios.

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“One of the things we understood was we didn’t get as much information out as early as we wanted to,” he explained.

“We can have closer coordination in messages… Utilize social media for initial messaging to improve speed and reach to the public.”

The City of Kamloops, will also work with the Thompson-Nicolas Regional District’s Emergency Operations Centre to co-ordinate messaging when it impacts a shared audience, Robinson said.

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His comments come less than a month after a Thompson Rivers University report called for improvements in the province’s communication about the risks before, during and after wildfires.

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The report analyzed the devastating wildfire seasons of 2017 and 2018, and made six recommendations, including ensuring remote and Indigenous communities have robust communications systems in place where emergency officials can relay fast and accurate information about wildfires.

That includes improved Internet services in remote communities, or at least supplying local officials with a satellite phone to communicate prompt wildfire information, said the study’s lead investigator, Michael Mehta, who teaches geography and environmental studies at Thompson Rivers University.

With files from The Canadian Press and Radio NL’s Colton Davies