Two forest fires earlier this week highlight the need for the B.C. government to re-commit to ongoing prevention work, according to the head of a local government preparing to make the case for more funding.
The first blaze sprung to life Sunday just north of Princeton and grew to 182 hectares, but was 90 per cent contained as of Tuesday morning, according to Kayla Pepper, spokesperson for the B.C. Wildfire Management Branch.
More help was then called out Monday to tackle a fire that lit up in the Shingle Creek area on the Penticton Indian Reserve and quickly expanded to 18 hectares, before crews wrestled it to 80 per cent containment as of Tuesday morning, Pepper said. Both fires are suspected to be human-caused and aren’t unusual this late in the summer.
“It’s hot and dry out there, and we also had strong winds on these fires. That’s why they spread so quickly,” said Pepper, adding the fire danger rating is still considered moderate or high throughout much of the Southern Interior.
With this week’s blazes, the total so far this year in the Kamloops Fire Centre stand at 327, well below the 456 recorded last year and the 10-year average of 479. Pepper warns it’s not too late to see the 2014 tally creep up to historical levels.
B.C.’s largest blaze this year remains the Chelaslie River fire discovered July 8 about 200 kilometres west of Prince George. It was pegged at 133,100 hectares in size and 75 per cent contained as of Tuesday.
All told, the B.C. government has spent $282 million battling wildfires this year, according to Vivian Thomas, spokesperson for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, which budgeted just $63 million for the work.
Given that cost, local politicians are hoping the B.C. government will devote more cash to prevention efforts.
The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen is looking to drum up support for that cause with a resolution it prepared for next week’s Union of B.C. Municipalities convention calling for continued funding of the Strategic Wildfire Prevention Initiative. Created in 2004, the initiative provides grants for communities to create, and implement, plans to cut the risk of interface fires by reducing fuel loads.
After endowing it with $37 million, the B.C. government topped up the program with $24 million in 2011, but the money is now spent, according to RDOS chief administrative officer Bill Newell, whose organization received $2 million to treat 150 hectares.
“We like the program. We’ve done very well by it in the past, and we want the province to restore funding so we can apply in the future,” said Newell.
“We have a huge area — 10,400 square kilometres — and we’ve done 150 hectares, so there’s a huge area out there that could benefit from wildfire prevention initiatives.”
