The Juniper Ridge Community Association says residents in that part of Kamloops are frustrated with the lack of an emergency escape plan.

After the fire last Thursday, Madyson Cavaliere says local residents haven’t stopped discussing what needs to be done during future emergencies.

“A lot of the short term goals we are discussing is keeping those gates open and unlocked, especially during the summer fire season. And then probably one of the big ones too is the traffic flow plans for Highland Road,” she said.

“There is only one lane down the lane but there are two lanes up, so its maybe figuring out a better way to keep the flow going.”

With hundreds of people trying to leave their home at the same time, it took some residents up to 40 minutes just to reach the roundabout at Highland Road and Qu’Appelle Blvd. It took some other residents nearly two hours before they were able to leave the subdivision.

Under typical conditions, the drive from Juniper Ridge Elementary school on Qu’Appelle Blvd. to the Trans Canada Highway takes about five minutes, according to Google Maps.

Cavaliere says an emergency alert system and better communication from the City is also something that Juniper residents want to see in the short term.

“Things like what would happen? Where should you go? What roads are closer to you?” she noted.

In the long term, she notes there needs to be those permanent exit routes that people in Juniper can use, if needed.

“Our big long term goals are the two potential exits right now that are in Juniper West and I mean I would like to see those completed to the Rose Hill area,” Cavaliere said.

“And then also an exit for Juniper East. I would love to see one that heads one to Highway 1 – again just as a emergency exit – because all of those people that live up in the bench lines and the Lower Kicking Horse, they’re only way down is through Highland.

Speaking on the NL Morning News, Kamloops City Councillor, Arjun Singh, said the city will be working to try and fix the delays that some Juniper Ridge residents faced on Thursday night.

He notes since that day, there have been lots of emails from residents concerned about access issues in times of emergency.

“It has been very sobering and good to get those in terms of what council can now discuss with city staff and move forward,” he said. “There were some accesses that were supposed to be open but I think there were some glitches for sure with getting those open. I think that certainly was compounded by the fact that there’s not a second access out.”

“Emergency access routes through Juniper has been an issue for a long time. We have accesses that go through but the question now is whether they are robust enough and what kind of protocol we have to ensure that they are accessible when needed and not like a locked gate or a blocked path or what have you.”

Singh says City council will be working with staff to bring in solutions as quickly as possible, noting the fire was a wake up call.

“I think that we’ve heard folks. We’ll work with staff to look at solutions we can implement, certainly in the long term, and hopefully as soon as possible,” Singh added. “Again, thank you to the emergency staff for what they did. Thank you for the patience of residents and we’re very alive to the concerns.”

An online petition to get the City Of Kamloops to construct a second road in and out of Juniper Ridge has been closed after getting 6,350 signatures.

As part of its commitments to moving forward, the City says it will “immediately” begin planning for a second, permanent paved road in and out of Juniper though its not clear how long it would take to plan, fund, and build it.

In the meantime, CAO David Trawin says the City is reviewing the emergency access roads but did not say if it would grade or improve the emergency road in Juniper on Qu’Appelle Blvd.

Another recommendation Trawin made will be to ask city council to money so that Kamloops residents can be included on the Voyent Alert app so they can get notified in the event of a future emergency.

Photo via John Cantelo on twitter