B.C. to expand programs that train volunteers to help firefighters battle wildfires

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The BC Wildfire Service says it is expanding its education programs to ensure more local volunteers get the training necessary to enable them to safely complement wildfire fighters when a blaze threatens their communities.

Over the weekend, locals in the Shuswap underwent wildfire training and on Monday about 17 volunteered to become integrated into the official effort to battle one of the biggest and most aggressive fires in British Columbia’s history.

It’s a shift in tone from last week when those volunteers were admonished for defying evacuation orders and staying behind to fight the blazes with makeshift equipment. That kind of decision puts first responders at risk, B.C. wildfire officials said. Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma said last week that those that refused to heed an evacuation order were breaking the law.

But residents in the mountainous, rural Shuswap have argued they stayed behind to protect their properties – some of them farms and businesses that go back generations – because they didn’t have faith that the wildfire operations had the resources to do that job for them.

Cliff Chapman, director of wildlife operations for BC Wildfire Service, said Monday that the agency is willing to learn and adjust as climate-related emergency hazards are on the rise in B.C. and is interested in expanding training and co-operation at the community level.

“What’s happening in the Shuswap, I think, is a great collective effort from the CSRD, the Columbia Shuswap Regional District, the local residents of that area and BC Wildfire Service, really working together to try to achieve a common objective, a common outcome of protecting people’s homes and getting people home sooner,” he said at a news conference.

“In terms of the expandability of this, it’s actually something that we were highly invested in prior to this fire season. And it’s something that we want to expand in terms of capacity at the community level.”

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Mr. Chapman said his agency is putting the locals on hire once they finish the training, not having them volunteer for the service.

The Bush Creek East Wildfire exploded into North Shuswap two weeks ago, and has destroyed or damaged at least 168 structures.

BC Wildfire Service spokesperson Mike McCulley told a Shuswap-focused news conference Monday that there was a “batch” of volunteers working the fire line on Sunday and 17 Monday, with the agency hoping more come to work with them on Tuesday.

“We’re happy to hire them and make sure they’re safe and put them to work, within the workable ground that we have,” Mr. McCulley said.

These residents are also helping the wildfire agency understand the area’s historic wind patterns, he added.

“It’s not just about the work, it’s about the knowledge that these folks have,” Mr. McCulley said. ”They’re from here, they live on the land, they know what’s going on and so we’re grateful to have them.”

Captain’s Village Marina in Scotch Creek, located on the shores of Shuswap Lake, posted on its Facebook page on Sunday that S100 Fire training courses were held at the marina. According to the province’s website, such training is delivered over two full days: one day in the classroom for theory and one day in the field for practical exercise.

In an unprecedented year of wildfires, British Columbia has had to ask for hundreds of extra firefighters from across the country and around the world. A new contingent of South African firefighters arrived to help Monday, joining roughly 250 people already on the ground fighting the 43,000 hectares of fires burning together in the region – all classified as out-of-control – alongside 84 support staff, he added.

John MacLean, director of emergency operations at the Columbia Shuswap Regional District, said his agency is studying how to ramp up the training of residents so they can become a “more permanent feature of firefighting here.”

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When asked why the wildfire operations were reluctant in the past to include local residents as volunteers, Ms. Ma defended the agency Monday, saying it works with communities across the province, and it has lots of partnerships with First Nations, local governments and contractors and industry groups.

“So there is a substantial amount of co-ordination and co-operation.”

She said her government needs to better understand and learn how to build trust and work with communities after the experience in the Shuswap.

“I think there’s always opportunities for us to learn how to better communicate and co-ordinate with communities … An organized co-operative community response is absolutely key in an all hazards and all emergencies and all of these situations,” she told reporters Monday afternoon.