Powell River has so far avoided the sizable wildfires that have burned in other areas of the BC coast. The city wants to keep it that way.
During its Tuesday, July 14 committee of the whole meeting, City of Powell River Council heard from Dan Ouellette, director of fire and emergency services. He provided an overview of the BC fire situation. He said in terms of wildfires this summer, there are none burning in Powell River and fires in Port Alberni, the Pemberton Valley and Sechelt were being contained.
In preparation for wildfires, Ouellette said Powell River’s firefighters have engaged in a number of training sessions with the BC Forest Service wildfire branch. Interoperability has also been reviewed, plus how the two agencies work together in planning.
“Those are good things for the community,” he said. “We have lots of great help with outside groups.”
The only downside is with the number of wildfires throughout the province this summer, local resources could be somewhere else at any given time. If there was a wildfire in this circumstance, the city would get another crew here but there would be a time issue compared to resident firefighters.
The city is continuing to follow the fire ban that the BC forest service has imposed. Powell River is an organized community and has its own bylaws but the city is following the forest service dictates because they “make sense.”
“They have set out some really reasonable criteria that people can understand,” Ouellette said. “It really spells out what is fire and what isn’t fire. We will continue to follow that until the fire ban is lifted.”
It may impact some events that are planned during the summer but conversations have been held with the organizers and they understand, according to the fire chief.
He said he believes most people are aware that there are no fires at Willingdon Beach at this time.
Ouellette said lastly, he wanted to mention the matter of fireworks. He said communities across the province are handling the issue in different ways. Powell River is going to go ahead with fireworks this summer, mostly because the fireworks will be on a barge offshore. Any of the fireworks that are let off at night will be fired over the water.
“Our biggest threat is not the fireworks themselves but the people that congregate to watch them,” Ouellette said.
Mayor Dave Formosa asked if the fire behind First Credit Union was an arson fire. Ouellette said it was difficult to tell. The fire was human caused but he couldn’t say if it was an intentional fire.
Councillor Rob Southcott asked if there was any hazard considered to be a greater threat to Powell River than fire. Ouellette said probably not. “I would say it’s our biggest threat.”
Mac Fraser, chief administrative officer, said the big three disasters on the coast are fire, flood and earthquake. The local emergency plan focuses on these occurrences. “Our emergency plan has a lot of scenarios in it but the ones we focus most on are forest fires, flooding and earthquakes.”
Councillor Russell Brewer wondered what could be done to raise awareness in situations of extreme fire hazard. “I’m just curious what options we could put in place that might help us get to that decision.”
Ouellette said some of the benchmarks that have been used are when the forest service curtails campfires. “That’s generally when we start to ramp up,” he said. “You bring up a good point. At what point do we close land off? We can put all sorts of rules, regulations and bylaws in place but how do we enforce them?”
Fire department staff have conducted patrols around the city but the further they go, it becomes much more problematic for the department.
“We’ll do whatever we have to but I’m not sure of the legal ramifications and whether we can enforce it.”
Marie Claxton, city clerk, said the city’s fire prevention bylaw says that where, in the opinion of the fire chief, the safety of life and property in any area of the municipality is endangered through the hazardous conditions of the forest cover, or the occurrence or spread of fire in the forests or woodlands, the fire chief may, by a written order signed by him, declare the area closed.
The issue of fire prevention will be referred to the August meeting of the emergency executive committee for discussion.
