Common Wildfire Response Issues for Rural Residents
2 July 2024I travelled the southern part of the province this spring conducting training with various industry and community groups and individuals. I met a lot of great people that have a variety of valuable skills and experiences to contribute to wildfire response.
That said, I encountered several common issues, misconceptions and opportunities for improvement.
1. Concerns about confusing/contradictory and delayed Evacuation Orders
Residents should direct their concerns to their Regional Districts or Municipal government. not the fire crews.
As I understand the system, except in the case of imminent peril, it is the local government (municipal or regional district) that issues the evacuation alerts and orders and then gets the RCMP to enforce them. The RCMP may not be local and likely won’t know who is a well meaning person trying to help and who is someone up to no good. This can be quite confusing and stressful if adjacent regional districts issue different orders.
There are several municipalities and regional districts that have streamlined and coordinated planning and implementing evacuations. With the hot weather coming contact your municipal or regional district emergency coordinators as soon as possible.
2. Concerns about locals not being allowed to stay and fight the fire or protect their values
If you have fuel around you and the weather is hot, dry and windy, you will eventually have an interaction with a wildfire. It shouldn’t be a surprise.
We all hate paying taxes and I don’t think we can afford to have enough firefighters to deal with every fire successfully. Before the smoke is in the air get trained, purchase your response equipment and do your Firesmart work. Join or organize some of the many community response groups being formed. Communicate with local response agencies and you may become a known potential asset instead of an unknown potential liability.
Many municipalities and regional districts have implemented permit systems. Again pre-planning is the key. Contact them as soon as possible.
Wildfire Response Protocol for Local Stakeholders https://www.cattlemen.bc.ca/docs/wildfireprotocol-initialattack-july2021.pdf
Community Response Groups- https://www.fraserbasin.bc.ca/tr_contact_us.html
I have been involved three times with ad-hoc groups of locals that ignored evacuation orders and stayed behind to protect their, or their neighbors properties. I can’t say enough positive things about their courage and integrity. However, most of them were unaware of how to assess and respond appropriately to the approaching fire. Despite living in fire-prone areas they had done little planning or preparations. They weren’t properly trained or equipped and didn’t recognize the associated hazards. Most of the locals had little or no experience with fires. This, combined with lack of training, resulted in extreme stress, panic and poor decision making. Lack of sleep and occasionally intoxication, contributed to the problems.
In one case the locals were adamant about staying then called for evacuations as the very intense fire got close. This put rescuers in considerable danger unnecessarily.
In all three cases we were very lucky not to have serious injuries or a fatality. I fully expect the exposure to toxic smoke may cause these well meaning people problems down the road.
Generally my experience with locals on wildfires has been good. They can offer valuable information on water sources, roads/trails, local weather etc. I do find they generally are overly confident in their wildfire knowledge and incorrectly optimistic about their response capabilities.
In two recent cases locals doing their own thing have gotten in the way of planned actions that I thought had a good chance of success. I have never heard of anyone going rogue on a fire and then being held accountable for lost opportunities or damages but be aware this is likely going to happen in the future. Again, just like helping at a first aid situation, if you take action on your own and disregard responders directions you may be held responsible for the outcomes.
3. Concerns that responders are too worried about safety and liability
Six young firefighters died last summer on , or on their way home from, wildfires.
Wildfires are dynamic and chaotic events that occur in large areas. Information may be out of date, visibility poor and communications limited. Supervisors may not be familiar with the area or know the local residents.
Whenever I supervise people on a wildfire I feel an obligation to make sure they get home safe and healthy at the end of every shift. If something goes wrong I want to be able to go to their family, look them in the eye and say I tried my best to keep the incident from happening. I am constantly assessing my decision making for Risk/Reward.
Worksafe BC considers wildfires as workplaces with the same standards and expectations as any other site. As a supervisor I am obligated to ensure that anyone working for me is properly trained, supervised, equipped and capable of doing the work assigned. With a bit of training and planning these standards are pretty easy to meet on a wildfire allowing us to take action safely and effectively.
I have withdrawn crews trying to save houses when I considered it was unsafe to do the work and the chance of success was low. In one such case, the local person in charge of the crew left them unattended with no communication while he tracked me down to tell me how little he thought of me and my decision. The fire burned over his unattended crew and we had to conduct an emergency rescue. One of the crewmembers was expecting their first child in two days.
It is much better to be out to safety a few hours too early than a minute too late.
4. Concerns about lack of action, confusing responses and rapidly changing plans
How many engineers, planners and testers work on developing, manufacturing and delivering a piece of IKEA furniture? When I try and put one together in my comfortable and familiar residence it never works out as planned. I always have to redo a step or end up with an extra piece.
Again, Wildfires are dynamic and chaotic events that occur in large areas over great distances. Information may be out of date, visibility poor and communications limited. Responders may not be familiar with the area. Plans that appeared favorable may become unworkable shortly after implementation.
This is an anticipated condition on a wildfire, especially early in a response. The best we can hope for is to reduce the confusion as much as possible as fast as possible.
Emergency planners around the world have an established set of priorities when deciding who gets what help when. There are financial limits to how many crews and other resources we can have available and there are rules governing hours of service for pilots and aircraft. Industrial worksites (forest, agriculture, construction, mining and gas, recreation) are likely low on the list.
Dispatchers may be quickly overwhelmed in the early stages of multiple incident situations. We have to be better prepared to be on our own with little or no help for longer periods of time than we would like or be used to.
5. Rural residents and industry stating they know how to fight fire
The older I get and the more time I work on wildfires the more I realize how little I know.
If someone tells you they have “the” answer to our wildfire problems take them with a large dose of salt. I love simple answers but the situation is complicated and has developed over a long period of time. We all contributed to it and all have a roll to play in reducing or mitigating losses.
Most people I have met are not adequately trained to respond even if they have taken the BC Wildfire S100 and S185. The material is an awareness level of training and doesn’t prepare us to be on our own when dealing with wildfires. It contains a substantial amount of out of date information particularly regarding fire behavior and safety.
We don’t have many people in our society who are physically capable of doing the required work to respond to a wildfire. Locals responding to a fire in their vicinity will often try too hard and may put themselves at risk for heart attacks, heat stroke and other medical emergencies. If an evacuation order is in place medical assistance my be delayed, or unavailable.
Most locals and industry people I work with have lots to offer but likely don’t have the specific skills needed to safely and effectively work on fires.The MacLeod “Enhanced” S100 tries to address these issues. Contact me if you are interested
In summary, locals have a lot to offer us in wildfire suppression but should be realistic about their capabilities and limitations. Direct your concerns to the appropriate people before there is smoke in the air.
After a wet cool spring the weather is heating up. Don’t be complacent. The fine fuels will dry quickly. Watch the FFMC and weather and adjust your operations accordingly.
Talk soon.
Doug