The Thompson-Nicola Regional District has passed a motion at a meeting on Monday asking for a back country ban in areas in the district where and when the fire danger risk is high or extreme.
Sun Peaks Mayor Al Raine says the conditions are so dry that this move would make sense.
“As we all know, normally we’re coming out of a rainy June and we’re going into the dry period of July and August. The the fire concern period is late July, early August. Here we are in late June, early July and already we have fires everywhere,” he said.
“I hope people are being careful. They seem moderate and think there is no fire danger and we heard people even on Canada Day lighting off fireworks and I heard bikes going in the woods the other day and it didn’t sound like they had mufflers on them. The woods are so dry and these kinds of activities are very dangerous.”
Raine says the concerns come because conditions are very dry.
“One or two people brought forward the fact that they took until the day before Canada Day, June 30th, sadly the day of the Lytton fire, for the province to actually issue a province wide campfire ban. I think if you’d gone to anyone in any of our communicates, Kamloops and Merritt, anyone, they would have said why isn’t a campfire ban already in place,” added Ashcroft Mayor Barbara Roden.
State of Emergency
The board also discussed whether to ask the province to declare a state of emergency related to the fires.
Raine says it was soundly defeated.
“Mostly on the grounds that people are very concerned for the Kamloops region, but when you put on a province wide emergency declaration that applies across the whole province,” he said. “So the concern was that there were probably areas of the province that don’t need that and one the concerns that I expressed at the meeting was the tourism industry was devastated the last time there was a province wide emergency declaration for fire.”
“Some of the concerns by the people who were looking for the declaration was maybe the province had been a bit slow in putting the camp fire ban in place just before Canada Day. I guess it is easy for us to think that the whole province is as dry as the Kamloops area is, but at the same time people in Victoria don’t see how dry it is here.”
Although the motion from the TNRD did not pass, BC’s official opposition has been pushing the province to call a state of emergency.
“We’ve seen how devastating and quickly these fires can move. It’s vital that B.C. is ready before more fires spark,” said MLA Mike Morris, BC Liberal Critic for Public Safety.
“A provincial State of Emergency provides certainty that resources will be available to those on the ground and in need. For the sake of all communities facing wildfires right now, John Horgan cannot delay this important call any longer.”
