When a wildfire is bearing down on a community, cooperation is key and ironing out everybody’s responsibilities on the fly wastes precious seconds. That is why the Sicamous Fire Department, along with District of Sicamous Staff and other emergency responders, will be talking through how they plan to protect the community on April 18.
Sicamous Fire Chief Brett Ogino said the idea for the community wildfire workshop came from both the success of the ammonia training exercise held in January and Ogino and other Sicamous firefighters’ experience assisting with the serious wildfires last summer.
Representatives from the Office of the Fire Commissioner, the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWF), the Shuswap Emergency Program, Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue , RCMP, BC Ambulance Service will attend the workshop.
Ogino said the workshop will allow the agencies to make a plan for coordinating resources and response in the event of a forest fire that is spreading towards Sicamous. He said the scenario will feature the fire spreading on strong winds from one side of town, giving the emergency responders only a few hours to begin evacuations.
Ogino and a few other Sicamous firefighters had an opportunity to work closely with the Office of the Fire Commissioner and BCWF while working on the wildfires, but he said it is important to also coordinate with groups like the marine search and rescue station who are unique to Sicamous.
He added it will be an opportunity to better prepare the local firefighters who didn’t assist with the forest fire fighting effort.
“It’s quite a shocker when you’re in a community one day and the very next day there is no one around, it’s all of a sudden a ghost town, it’s quite a surprise. That happened to us in 100 Mile House,” Ogino said.
The Shuswap Emergency Program will be represented by Emergency Program Coordinator Tom Hansen and Emergency Social Services Director Cathy Semchuk. Neither SEP representative are strangers to wildfires and evacuations as Hansen was once in charge of Rapattack Salmon Arm and Semchuk played a major role in supporting the evacuees who made their way to Salmon Arm after escaping the serious wildfires this summer.
“I think it’s very valuable. We’ve already had a couple of meetings there with the local district and the fire department there, just discussing preparedness and their plans which are very important,” Hansen said
Hansen said it is important the public is aware of potential hazards for fire and other natural disasters in their area. He said Wednesday’s scenario will be a good chance for the public to see what each agency does in the event of an emergency and what their responsibilities are.
“Hopefully more and more of the public, especially after a season like last year, are up to speed on what potentially could happen especially when things go really sideways,” he said.
Hansen said because of the complexity of a large-scale evacuation it is important for the agencies involved to review their current plans and put them to the test in hypothetical situations whenever possible.
“There’s always challenges when you’re talking large-scale evacuations,” he said.
The Shuswap Emergency program’s role in the event of an emergency evacuation is generally to coordinate it through their Emergency Operations Centre and communicate important information including evacuation alerts and orders to the public and the media.
Hansen said the Shuswap’s emergency responders are also actively working together to prepare for possible flooding and landslides, which are a more present threat than wildfires in early spring.
“We haven’t forgotten about flooding, we’re right in the middle of that as far as preparedness and prevention stuff. Luckily enough we’re not in the same situation that the southern part of the Okanagan is at the moment and we still have a fair bit of capacity in Shuswap Lake to absorb rain and snow melt.”
Along with responders, the public will also be welcomed to the workshop to ask questions, as well as get instruction on how to prepare themselves to evacuate if the worst should happen. Ogino said the workshop will also be used as an opportunity to educate the public on Fire Smart site preparation, which recommends people clear combustible materials away from their homes. Ogino said Fire Smart recommends clearing anything that could fuel a fire away from the exterior walls of the house, creating a clear space at least 1.5 metres wide. Ogino also recommend trimming trees so their limbs do not touch and clearing leaves, pine needles and other debris from trees.
“It helps prevent the fire getting from the wildfire stage into the actual burning-down-your-house stage. So many people live in the bush and they have trees right up to their house,” Ogino said.
For those interested in attending the community wildfire workshop will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. at the top floor of the Sicamous and District Rec Centre.
