A resident is placed in an ambulance as paramedics assist in the evacuation of a seniors care facility due to wildfires, in Kelowna, B.C., on Aug. 18.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
British Columbia will need to permanently expand its health care operations during the summer months because of wildfires so that the province can better deal with an influx of evacuees from at-risk cities, the Health Minister says.
Adrian Dix said 988 people in long-term care had to be evacuated from multiple towns after B.C. experienced its worst fire season ever this year. Two years ago, 895 had to be evacuated. The minister said hospitals in general saw hundreds more patents than usual during the season, which he said was likely attributable in part to wildfire-smoke impacts.
“A common feature of every summer from now on will be the impact on the health care system because of fires,” Mr. Dix said Tuesday, speaking to delegates at this year’s Union of B.C. Municipalities convention at a session on the health impacts of wildfires. “What’s required is an increasing building up of our health care system if we’re going to function this way in July and August.”
The evacuation of long-term care patients is particularly difficult because the majority of people in long-term care have dementia, making a move very stressful and one that requires a lot of supports.
“There’s no expectation this will not happen in the future,” the minister said.
B.C. municipal politicians to send provincial government warning on response to wildfires
B.C. recorded 49 significant fires this summer, and numerous councillors and mayors at the convention talked about the devastating impacts and frustration over dealing with so many fires at once in their areas. At points, the smoke was so heavy that planes couldn’t fly. More than 10,000 homes had to be evacuated in West Kelowna alone.
Besides that stress, B.C. hospitals were well used in the past year, hitting 9,700 filled beds at some points, compared with 8,800 or 8,900 beds used usually, Mr. Dix noted.
That was all happening as the province was trying to ramp up surgery hours, after big reductions during the early COVID-19 pandemic years. B.C. saw 13,900 more surgery hours from April to August than in any prepandemic year, the minister said. That brought the total hours up to almost 235,000 for that period this year, compared with the period in 2019, when it was at around 222,000 hours.
Mr. Dix didn’t have statistics available on how many of those additional patients came in because of wildfire-smoke impacts but said they probably account for part of the increase.
Dr. Angela Yao, a senior scientist with the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, outlined the many health impacts that wildfire smoke can produce – impacts that happen faster and last longer than most people realize.
She said people start reporting respiratory problems when smoke is still at relatively light levels: “That means the actions needed to protect health should really start when it first starts to get smoky, not when it gets extremely smoky.”
People are just starting to do research on mental-health impacts so there is no big body of data yet on that, Dr. Yao added.
But other research shows that more babies are born underweight when the mothers are exposed to wildfire smoke. Children will experience long-term reductions in lung capacity if they’re exposed to smoke, and adults will experience some cognitive decline under smoke conditions.
Councillors and mayors have said they don’t have the financial capacity to do the kind of preparation or mitigation that active fire seasons such as this year will be requiring. There are a couple of resolutions at the continuing convention asking that the province provide more money to help with reducing fire risk and planning for wildfires.
Dr. Yao said that, in the past, health officials have dealt with air pollution by asking for more controls by the producers. But that’s not possible with wildfires, so communities will need to come up with plans to help their residents prepare, she said.
Dr. Yao said putting air filters in buildings, even homemade ones cobbled together from box fans and furnace filters, can help reduce smoke impacts indoors.