Northern Rockies needs support with Zombie Fires: PRRD
Approximately eight-five of last year’s fires are still burning in British Columbia, many in the North. These over-wintering or zombie fires are causing concern for communities and regional districts throughout the province, including in the northern areas of the Peace River Regional District and in the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality.
Northern Rockies Mayor Rob Fraser said on CBC’s Daybreak North last week that people in Fort Nelson and the surrounding region are concerned about the resurgence in fire activity and what it could mean once spring arrives. People in northern BC are used to seeing fires, but not the zombie fires that have been seen this year.
“In the past, you’d get three feet of snow. When spring came, the snow melted and put those fires out,” Fraser said. “This year there’s no snow, so we’re very concerned that these zombie fires will increase in size as spring comes and will start our fire season extremely early.”
Fraser is hoping the provincial government can help his municipality with resources, so that locals have the training to deal with issues, in the event that fire resources are called away to southern areas of the province with larger populations when fires crop up down there.
He wants to make sure NRRM has the resources so that “we have some local people who understand how we need to respond in these fire situations.”
After hearing the CBC interview on Thursday morning, Fort St. John Mayor Lilia Hansen suggested that the Peace River Regional District board send a letter of support to NRRM, and to ask the Prince George Fire Centre to take action to address these fires before the fire season begins. Currently there is no demand for fire fighting resources, Hansen pointed out, and this could be a good time to get ahead.
“What I’m hearing is that the muskeg is very dry, and it’s just a matter of time before these small fires will continue to burn and grow,” said Hansen. “Now is the time to tackle it, not when it’s coming towards a community.”
Chetwynd Mayor Allan Courtoreille wondered if the province has a budget to fight fires outside of the “fire season”.
According to a backgrounder the province put out following Thursday’s budget announcement, $38 million has been ear-marked for year-round resourcing for wildfires, including fire crew leaders and front-line staff, as well as $21 million for an equipment depot in Prince George.
“Budget or not, there are fires still burning and when the fire season picks up, and these fires go crazy they’re going to be looking at triaging it,” said Hansen.
Hansen said that she brought this up because she wants to be able to look her residents in the face and tell them that local governments did their best to bring the situation to light, to make sure the province knows these smoldering fires are a concern.
Because of the remoteness of the fire locations, lack of water or accommodations for fire fighters – who usually sleep in tents during fire season – Taylor Mayor Brent Taillefer said that he thinks it’s much more difficult to fight fires in the winter. Temperatures are supposed to drop again to around -25 Celsius in the next week or so, he noted, which is not conducive to sleeping in tents.
Several directors felt that having representatives from the Prince George Fire Centre provide information or education to the board would help the directors get correct information out to regional district residents.
“Maybe if we had some education from the Fire Centre, we can be involved with Mayor Fraser,” added Area B director Jordan Kealy, whose region is also experiencing a number of zombie fires, particularly in the Stoddart Creek area.
In addition to sending a letter of support to NRRM, the PRRD board decided to renew their invitation to the Prince George Fire Centre staff to present to the board.