British Columbia declared a state of emergency on Wednesday. But Cariboo North MLA Coralee Oakes says she, along with other local MLAs in the region, had been quietly pushing for it for almost a week.
“We started last Friday, as MLAs. On the fire calls we were being told by the Fire Centre that they don’t have the resources. So we quietly started contacting the ministers. … We put a letter directly to the government in confidence saying, ‘We need a state of emergency and we need more resources.’
“There was a huge disconnect with what was happening on the ground and what Victoria [thought was happening]. I don’t think they recognized how serious it was on the ground,” says Oakes.
Despite the confidential letter being leaked to media and Liberal MLAs facing some backlash, the government came through. The state of emergency will last for 14 days, at which time it can be renewed. It means more resources for fighting fires in the province, including Canadian troops being sent in for support work.
We’re here to help you, B.C. @CanadianForces troops are headed your way to assist with the wildfires. #bcwildfire pic.twitter.com/CLCWFI6AqP
— CAF Operations (@CFOperations) August 15, 2018
What it means locally
In local terms, it means the North Cariboo is getting its own incident management team (IMT), which is setting up a camp at Sylvia’s Cafe on Nazko Road.
It also means that structural protection units will be provided to protect properties in the fire zones.
“We needed the state of emergency so the fire commissioner could get engaged, and that’s where you get the structural protection. But we needed that call to start getting some of those resources out there,” comments Oakes, who says she saw one unit at Tim Horton’s this week, which made her cheer.
A structural protection unit includes sprinkler systems and other tools used by trained crews to protect homes and businesses. Now that they are being brought to the Cariboo, any structures in the line of fire, so to speak, will have water systems set up to protect buildings should firefighters and crews be unable to stop the advancing fire.
The camp at Sylvia’s will house firefighters from Saskatchewan and Mexico, says Oakes; crews that have been sent in to focus solely on the fires in the area.
“They are putting all of our fires under the control of this IMT. So these are our resources. If they are moving them, they will go between, say, Narcosli, Baezaeko,” says Oakes, noting that with the fires under the remit of the Cariboo Fire Centre, resources can be moved around depending on which fires become priorities in the entire district. Crews would just begin to get a handle on a fire, and then be shipped to the other end of the region to help on a different fire.
And with the IMT in place, communication regarding North Cariboo fires – including four Wildfires of Note at North Baezaeko, Blackwater River, Narcosli Creek and Shag Creek – should improve.
“We’ve asked them to go to the Farmers’ Market as a point of contact to start updating people. There will be points in the city where updated information will be, and they will start to do regular public meetings to let people know what’s going on,” explains Oakes.
One of the fires of most concern for Oakes is the Shag Creek Fire, which is currently 9,300 hectares and zero per cent contained, with absolutely no resources fighting it.
“I ask every day on the fire call about Shag Creek. They say it’s because it’s so smoky out there, and the terrain, they haven’t been able to get people safely out there. It’s my job to question why we don’t have resources, and I’m going to ask everyday,” says Oakes. She’s been in contact with ranchers in the area who have ignored the evacuation order and remained to protect their properties.
“Yes, someone is on order and yes, they should leave, but if you don’t have any protection and see day after day no support coming for that fire, it puts people in that precarious situation where we are seeing people not leaving.”
And communication on the size of fires is something that has been lacking so far this fire season. While the Cariboo Fire Centre provides regular updates, the sizes of the fires often remain steady for days at a time. It seems implausible that an active, zero per cent contained fire could remain the same size for days. So what’s the story?
Oakes admits it’s one of the challenges the BC Wildfire Service is facing, but she thinks there’s a better way to go about communicating the numbers.
“I would rather them be honest with people and say, ‘We can’t get to the fire because it’s too smoky. We can’t track the size.’ We are living in [the smoke], we get that. but to keep reporting out that it hasn’t grown….” Oakes trails off.
How to deal in the new normal
Many are wondering, after the second year in a row of the province in a state of emergency, whether this kind of fire behaviour is the new normal. Oakes thinks it may be. And if it is, we need to be equipping our communities with the skills and knowledge to be more self-reliant.
“Here is what I’ve been raising since last year, weekly, with every single ministry: we have to rely on communities. And specifically, I’m a huge supporter of volunteer fire departments and making sure they have the skills and supplies,” she says.
In July, the Observer published a story on rural fire departments in the North Cariboo that were struggling to get their work done without basic equipment. The story had a happy ending, with the Red Cross later agreeing to fund coveralls, helmets and gloves for the fire departments in need, with $28,000 in funding. But Oakes says it was surprising how difficult it was to get even that.
“The frustration we are seeing with our volunteer fire departments is that they are losing volunteers,” says Oakes. And they are a valuable resource during fire season. Tyee Lake Volunteer Fire Department and Horsefly Volunteer Fire Department have each put out fires due to lightning strikes this season.
UPDATE: Red Cross agrees to fund rural fire departments in the Cariboo
Oakes wants these fire departments supported, so that going into future fire seasons, there are more trained organizations that can work locally to put out fires.
“We used to have fire wardens in our smaller communities, like Nazko, Baker Creek, Narcosli. So you have an equipment cache in the area, you have someone who has a list of where people are and the skills. People have structural protection in some cases, but you need a water tank, you need a few people with wildfire or grass fire training. So let’s do that training. So if you see a lightning strike, you’re able to action it,” says Oakes, but she says she’s gotten a lot of push back from Victoria on the idea.
Improvements since 2017
Despite the province having more work to do when it comes to disaster response, Oakes does say she’s seen many positives this year compared to last year.
“What I’ve seen on the ground is that there is better integration between [the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development] and BC Wildfire Service. Last weekend, we had all the FLNRO staff working on the fire guards. If you work for government, you are out fighting fires. That’s different,” she comments.
She says the fire calls also began earlier than last year, giving stakeholders in local areas better updates – and also giving them the ability to speak up when they thought more resources were needed.
“In the defence of the province, what we’ll find is every single fire centre this year is stretched. We don’t know where to turn to bring in resources,” she says.
Oakes hopes that in the next 12 months, more thought will be put into how to better fund training and supplies for local organizations that could be tasked with helping to fight fires.
“That’s volunteer fire departments, search and rescue…. there are some pretty basic organizations that I think could be tapped into.”
Locals helping locals
And in the meantime, the MLA hopes locals – whether they are on evacuation alert or order, or not – will be able to find some semblance of normalcy in this “new normal”, to offer them comfort, support and possibly even a little fun.
Barkerville is holding some great events this weekend, with their Autumn Moon Festival, she notes, and there’s a First Nations Cultural Camp being held at Lhtako Dené Nation, as many First Nations communities are directly affected by fires in the larger North Cariboo region and can use a cheerful distraction. She says the Friendship Centre is also working on putting on activities for children.
She also encourages residents to shop locally, to support businesses which may still be struggling after two summers of fires.
“Realistically, we have a lot of August left. This could all go on into September,” says Oakes.
READ MORE: Narcosli Creek Fire now 70% contained, more resources allocated in North Cariboo
READ MORE: City rescinds evacuation alert; CRD reduces Narcosli Creek Fire evacuation order, alerts
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