A look at the Bush Creek East Fire in the community of Celista, in the North Shuswap, as seen on Aug. 19, 2023. (Photo via Dawn Bentley)
The mayor of Barriere is has written to Premier David Eby asking for a third-party review of the 2023 wildfire season.
In a letter dated Aug. 28, Ward Stamer says it is important for the provincial government to “recognize its responsibility in analyzing each fire and their respective crew responses in order to learn and be able to improve future wildfire outcomes.”
“Proper analysis requires the protection and retention of all information, data and correspondence to and from BC Wildfire Service pertaining to each wildfire in the 2023 fire season,” Stamer wrote.
Stamer is among a number of other local officials who have openly questioned the BC Wildfire Service for not actioning smaller fires immediately. He pointed to the Bush Creek East fire, which later merged with the former Lower East Adams Lake fire last month to become the 431 sq. kilometre behemoth it is, consuming wide swaths of the North Shuswap.
“We were assured that on that previous Thursday, I believe it was around the 12th, that everything was under control,” Stamer said. “I was just absolutely shocked when I got to the cabin on that Sunday and asked my wife, ‘why is there still smoke over there? That gets going, we’re not going to be able to put it out.'”
“I mean there were multiple fires in the North Thompson Valley this year that were actioned by our local fire departments and interface that we have locally. Each one of those was put out within 24 hours.”
The 2023 fire season – the worst on record in B.C. – has already burned 22,445 sq. kilometres of land, costing the province $585-million as of Aug. 28.
According to the most recent data, the majority of the fires this season – 611 of 2,085 – have been in the Prince George Fire Centre, with the Kamloops Fire Centre second at 375.
A summary of the 2023 BC wildfire season as of Sept. 5, 2023. (Photo via BC Wildfire Service)
Stamer says the review should include a committee of locally elected officials from areas that were hardest hit by wildfires. He says it should also wildfire experts from other jurisdictions, representatives from the BC Wildfire Service, and nonpartisan representation from the BC Legislature.
“This review needs to begin immediately and its summary, with initial recommendations, should be shared with the public before the 2024 wildfire season,” Stamer wrote. “Such a review/audit was done after the 2003 wildfire season in BC, and it proved to provide invaluable lessons for subsequent years.”
A similar third-party review – the Abbott/Chapman report – was also conducted after the fire and floods of 2017.
“I think without pointing any fingers, I think we really want to get to the bottom of what is going on and hopefully we can come up with some better ideas and some better opportunities going forward to get a handle on some of these fires,” Stamer said.
– With files from Paul James
