Defying an evacuation order and remaining behind to help protect their community during the 2017 wildfires really brought his people together, said Tl’etinqox (Anaham) Chief Joe Alphonse.
“It taught us to be proud of who we are and have confidence as a community,” he said. “It was an act of self-governance to defy an evacuation order and it showed us we can be independent.”
When the Hanceville-Riske Creek fire started to expand in July 2017, Alphonse had been chief eight and a half years.
But it was the crisis of the wildfires that made the community more cohesive.
Everybody and anybody who wanted to work worked.
“There were a lot of people who criticized that we weren’t creating enough jobs, but all those critics during the fires, we couldn’t find them. They were all hiding and to this day are still hiding from me.”
In 2009 and 2010, the community evacuated and after the second time vowed they wouldn’t evacuate again.
“We started training our own, and it wasn’t about teaching them how to fight fire, they already know how to do that, it was more about getting them government certified,” he said.
Fighting for the community was the biggest fight, he added.
Alphonse said a First Nations community has to make sure it is prepared before it defies an evacuation order.
“We had policies in place that we started to develop in 2009. We were on draft six and hoping to do draft seven this past winter, but we are still trying to play catch-up for funding because of the fires.”
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Proud that no homes were lost and no one was injured during the wildfires, Alphonse said he was also overwhelmed by all the outside help Tl’etinqox received.
Whether it was people from as far away as Fort McMurray, oil and gas companies, families, nearby ranchers, a meat shop in Quesnel, or the McLeese Lake Volunteer Fire Dept., fishermen from Bella Coola, local bulldozer operators and loggers, there were so many people who came forward to help.
“The harmony we found wasn’t just within our own community, but it was with people from all over the Cariboo, B.C. and Alberta. I just cannot say enough about the stories of never ending generosity. In return we provided food, gasoline and lodging to tourists who were trying to flee the Chilcotin and spent the night in our parking lot.”
Alphonse said he still believes the craziest person through it all was the fuel truck driver that drove through the fires and flames to make sure Tl’etinqox had fuel.
“It was essential and he knew that. People like that really stepped up. Talk about brave men – those bulldozer operators were something else too. I never heard any of them complain and they put hours day in and day out in some of the most intense fires.”
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The community also received the donation of a fire truck from the City of New Westminster within the first weeks of the fire, and moving forward Tl’etinqox is offering training for community members to be part of a structural protection crew.
“We want to provide more training because I think we have only two or three guys who can operate our fire truck. You never know when you are going to be in fire situations, so the more people you have trained the better.”
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