In May the Columbia Woodlot Association, through funding with the Columbia Basin Trust hosted two of a three part speaker session, ‘Living with the Forest Around Us.’ At the first session on May 15th, we heard from Derek Sutherland General Manager Community and Protective Services, and Sophie Randell, Interim FireSmart Coordinator. This session was titled ‘The Past,’ Derek talked about last year’s Bush Creek East wildfire which forced over 8000 people to be evacuated, destroyed 176 structures within the CSRD, and damaged more than 50 others. Fortunately no lives were lost. The CSRD activated an Emergency Operations Centre on July 12, 2024 and evacuation alerts and orders were lifted on Oct 5, 2024. Derek, explained that there were many challenges: Early alerts and evacuation orders where access was one way in and out. Homeowners left sprinklers on, only to have water run out. Firefighting equipment at a critical evacuation point (only bridge out of an area) went missing. On the positive side even though fire fighters were stretched they continued on even when their own families had been evacuated. Sophie gave notices to homeowners of the potential threats, and the take home message we heard was, ‘don’t wait until the fire is in your area, to think about FireSmart, and what you will take with you if you have to leave your home.’
The recording from this session should be available soon at www. goldencoopradio.ca.
The second session on May 29th ‘The Present’ hosted speakers Kyle Hale, Golden and Area A, Emergency Program Coordinator and Mike Pecora, Golden Fire Chief. Kyle explained that the Golden and Area A Emergency Management Program (EMP) is a joint service for the Town of Golden and Area A. An Emergency Management program addresses all hazards and is required under Provincial legislation. It deals with the consequences of emergencies. The EMP doesn’t respond to an emergency or put out fires or clean up fuel spills First responders do this. The EMP acts in support of the response, when a response becomes overwhelmed or when there are consequences to that response in the community. An example would be evacuations. The Golden Fire Rescue can respond to a house fire. This doesn’t involve the local EMP. The moment there’s a block of houses on fire maybe that has a larger response requirement, the EMP would be enacted to perhaps close streets, evacuate people, and deal with the consequences of that fire. The role of the Emergency Program Coordinator is to act as the liaison between all of the agencies and to liaise with the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (formerly Emergency Management BC). Emergency programs are very cyclical and they want to include the mitigation piece, but this is tricky with overlapping jurisdictions and limited funding. Currently the EMP is working on and have worked on prescriptions within the community for fuel reduction over the past number of years. A big part of Kyle’s job is preparing for emergencies, ensuring plans and procedures are in place. Because EMP response happens quickly it’s role is small in comparison to the recovery period which can fall over years or decades. After a response is over the EMP start again with mitigation preparedness and just keep going through this cycle.
An emergency operations center is established anytime there is an incident in the community, following the same chain of command as the incident command system. The EMP uses the same system and jargon as first responders, so fire chiefs, wildfire branch and Ministry of Environment can clearly communicate. Golden is fortunate as we’re probably one of the only communities of our size in British Columbia that has a dedicated standalone emergency operations center, it’s next to the Rec Plex, where it sits there idling 24/7 fully backed up from a backup power perspective. It also serves as the backup for the Town of Golden office for our business continuity plan.
In an emergency and an incident commander dealing directly with the incident can call the emergency operations center to support that incident. The commander may say we need 6 buses to evacuate the city block. The operations center will then find them six buses. If they need additional resources from outside of the community from an organization that there isn’t already have a mutual aid agreement with the EMP, the EMP enters into an agreement, contracts those services and gets them to the incident commander and the incident commander deploys them as they see fit. When our EMP needs help they go up the chain to the preop the Provincial Regional Emergency Operations Centre (ours is Nelson), and they go up the chain to the provincial coordination level in Victoria. Community, Regional and Provincial emergency programs support each other and resources requests and funding flows up and down. The EMP operates under a set of objectives that are clearly defined. The number one objective is to provide for the health and safety of our responders. If this is a priority lives will be saved. The other objectives are to reduce suffering, protect public health and protect government and critical infrastructure, protect the environment and reduce economic and social impacts. Kyle emphasized that EMP priorities are different from the priorities of homeowners. Kyles priorities as a homeowner as a father are to keep his family safe. As his role in our community protecting homeowners properties pretty low on the list. Saving lives, and protecting responders trumps, protecting critical infrastructure. So sometimes when things are really bad we don’t ever get to the bottom of the list. That is why community members have a role in Emergency Management.
Kyle ended his talk by emphasizing the following. Know your neighbourhood, know who may need help in the case of an emergency. Be prepared to shelter in place for 72 hours or having enough equipment resources and knowledge and a plan to be able to shelter in place for at least 72 hours so food water essential requirements for your house whatever that might be prescription medication prescription eyeglasses whatever it is 72 hours of bare minimum so when the power goes off can you survive for that time. The second, is be prepared in the case of evacuation, have your medication, documentation, and anything else you might need to be away for sometime. If you have pets or farm animals, plan in advance for how they will be evacuated.
Golden Fire Chief Mike Pecora, explained that the Golden Fire Department only responds to fires in Area A, when they are called out by the BC Wildfire Service. The BC Wildfire Service has an interagency agreement with the Town of Golden and the CSRD that when called upon the Golden and/or Nicolson Fire Departments can action fires outside of their jurisdictions.
This was already the case, this spring, with a human caused fire near Moberly triggered a response from the Golden Fire Department.
Many of the Golden and Nicholson Fire Department staff have training to protect structures in the event of a wildfire. This includes installing sprinklers on roofs and pumps to reduce the risk of fire starts.
Homeowners can prepare their homes by using FireSmart principle and installing sprinklers in advance. The Town of Golden is in the process of hiring a FireSmart Coordinator. The coordinator will soon be available to complete assessments. FireSmart principles are used to assess risk to your home from wildfire using ignition potential within Home Ignition Zones.
Chief Pecora emphasized the importance of FireSmart neighbourhoods, just one home in a neighbourhood isn’t enough, especially if your neighbour’s risk is high for fire starts.
Mike explained that people tend to think that if there is a fire, that the local fire department can put the fire out. While this may be true when one home is on fire, the fire department could not handle four homes burning at once.
