Involving the Public in Wildfire Response – The Positives and Negatives

20 January 2024

Hi folks

Here is a presentation I gave to a group of rural residents after my experiences in the 2021 wildfire season. Several of the residents were making blanket statements that they would stay and defend no matter what. In this incident at Shrike Hill we did save several buildings by staying but in hindsight took on too much risk to do so. One of the social media messages that came out of the incident focused on the success and didn’t cover the hazards and risk incurred.

The initial version of this was a little ambiguous. After my experiences in the Shuswap in 2023 I tried to make my recommendations clearer.

Let me know what you think.

Talk soon.

Doug

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