When are we going to learn!

[uniped27]

We were one of the lucky ones in the 2003 Okanagan fire. Our house and car were spared. My neighbors were not. They lost everything! It's been 15 years now and what have we learned about forest fires???? Not a hell of a lot. Ask your local MP what they are doing to combat these fires? What is the size of our aircraft fleet to respond to these fires? Ask your local MP if the government is increasing our fleet to tackle these fires. Sure it cost money and so do these fires. If you can not beat these fires, you might as well surrender to them.

[OKkayak]

Better yet, how about you tell us what we should have learned about the fires over the last 15 years?
You let us know what the appropriate actions the Government needs to take?
How much of a budget they should set aside?
Where will the money come from ?
Enlighten us how to properly combat a fire?

[canuck500]

For starters you should be asking your local MLA those questions, wildfires are a provincial responsibility!

[JagXKR]

We have not learned to keep the areas around our houses from being a fire hazard. Many times watched the news with owners worried about their homes and when they show the property it's full of weeds, shrubs, bushes and trees. One ultra maroon had a garden hose watering the dried up shrubs and bushes around his home. Cut then down!
Simple choice, view or safety. Also stop building log cabins or using other highly flammable materials. If you are not fire smart you are fire stupid.

[Silverstarqueen]

We do have to rethink how much burnable bushes and trees we want around our homes. and how many want to build in interface areas. Around here there is a new subdivision going in on a very dry hillside with plenty of old standing timber that would go up like matchsticks. So there's an increased risk just by virtue of having more people driving thru and living in the area, right next to very dry forest. No doubt if a fire starts anywhere in this area, people will expect that all the stops be pulled out to save their homes (naturally). But is this an efficient way to expand the areas of home building. It would make more sense to have homes closer to town as much as possible so the perimeter could be more efficiently protected.

This year there are so many fires, so spread out, the resources have reached their limit and still homes are being lost because no matter how many helicopters you have they can't be everywhere at once. Each town and village is going to have to plan what kind of fire protection they can provide for their area. Yes, there will be some sharing, but instead of expecting the province to provide everything everywhere, locals need to have fire fighting fleets that are not just fire trucks, but also helicopters and firefighters trained and ready to go in their general area, and ready to help the next district when needed. This can still be coordinated by the province, and support given, but every area needs to pitch in and share resources.

[voice of reason]

it might be time for the province to invest in some more fire boss type planes so in a case of multiple fires they dont have to just let one burn.the resources we have are stretched pretty thin when the whole province is on fire every summer.

[bob vernon]

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2018/07/cl ... ns-notice/

[Mark1111]

it might be time for the province to invest in some more fire boss type planes so in a case of multiple fires they dont have to just let one burn.the resources we have are stretched pretty thin when the whole province is on fire every summer.

We need to revise our entire response to fighting fires. And it needs to happen at the federal level. We need to be prepared to retrain, transport and provide other mission related activities to deploy our military to locations immediately when fires start, not wait until out towns and cities are in peril. Its a whole new shift in philosophy and it will take some time to get the wrinkles out but our world is changing very quickly and this seems an obvious solution.

[my5cents]

Here's a thought, how about mutual assist agreement with a Southern hemisphere country, such as Australia and or New Zealand.

Joint owned and maintained planes and crews.

Currently, when things get bad we bring firefighters from down South, but an official program where our people can count on work during the winter down under and they up North during their winter. The same with the equipment.

[bob vernon]

Conair's planes have been sent south for years. Even to Indonesia during our winter. Likewise, Canada has sent people. There was a real stir in Australia about a decade or so back when Canada sent down a manager who was native. The Aussies, and their aboriginal firefighters, couldn't get over the fact that a non-white could hold a management position.

[Catsumi]

One fellow I heard speaking on CBC radio today used to be a firefighter in California. He said that firefighters are at it even during night hours, whereas here in B.C. they shut down until daylight. Maybe we should investigate this avenue too.

[rookie314]

First: how you gonna pay for it.
Second: forests need to burn
Third: how you gonna pay for it

[gman313]

It's to the point we should build 200 metre fire guards around every city. Bull doze them regularly. Probably cheaper than reacting to a fire. Helis and planes are not cheap to fly

if its outside the guard let it burn, if inside we can manage it

[Catsumi]

First: how you gonna pay for it.
Second: forests need to burn
Third: how you gonna pay for it

Point taken, thanks.

If it were possible to create a balance sheet showing what these hard to control fires are actually costing us in terms of:

Lost tourism dollars and tax revenue
Lost homes, infrastructure, livestock and machinery
Loss of harvestable forests
Lost time for productive, working people who must evacuate, relocate, rely on food banks and motels
Lost health
Lost wildlife that burned to death, lost fish spawning streams
Increases in insurance premiums

What does that total look like?

And then consider all the government waste of money, at all levels. Just the Federal Auditor General's report alone should be just cause for civil revolt.

Maybe, just maybe there would be plenty of funds to consider equipping our firefighters with nighttime capabilities to fight the fires at night as Californians have seen fit to undertake. Or, at the very least, man and machine power to clean up deadfall.

I realize that some fire is good, but how much is enough?

Before you leap down my throat, I too realize that government simply WILL NOT control extravagant spending until we put the boots to them. Those wasted funds could and should allow us to purchase/rent necessary equipment and hire more peeps. Until then, this is summer, another one to remember for all the wrong reasons.

[Symbonite]

If your in a interface property...You should have some sort of insurance. some people found out the hard way in 2003