qathet Regional District (qRD) board will consider a recommendation to proceed with the fire department initial attack (FDIA) program for an initial trial period during the 2024 wildfire season.
At the June 26 committee of the whole meeting, directors reviewed a staff report that indicated BC Wildfire Service developed FDIA in response to the increasingly challenging wildfire seasons in recent years. The report stated the program is intended to leverage local fire department resources during times when the capacity of provincial wildfire resources are stretched to their limits due to numerous fire incidents across the province. The FDIA program is intended to use local fire resources for road accessible fires beyond the boundaries of the local fire services.
In the fall of 2023, Powell River Community Forest approached the local BC Wildfire Service and qRD staff to express the community forest’s interest in supporting improvements in community wildfire protection in the region, the report stated.
Manager of emergency services Ryan Thoms said the recommendation for consideration was for the qRD to give FDIA a trial this year.
Electoral Area E director Andrew Fall said the benefits for participation in the program seem high and the financial costs are minimal to none because there is some outside funding to help cover costs.
“We can do the program this year and learn from it and decide whether we want to continue,” said Fall. “It seems like something really useful to engage with.”
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said he was very excited with the program and was very pleased to read the report.
“One of the concerns I’ve always had in Area B is we have a lot of community forest and a lot of it butts up right next to private property,” said Gisborne. “There’s a lot of farmland, and if the community forest was to catch on fire, it suddenly becomes a jurisdiction thing. Is it outside the Malaspina Volunteer Fire Department Service? Fires don’t actually know about service boundaries. They just go where the fuel is.
“I’m very happy with this program. I’m also thinking about next steps because there are other parts of the province where they are having fires and all their resource capacities are stretched to the limits. We’ll see how this goes this year and see if there is any way to expand it in future.”
City of Powell River director Cindy Elliott said a trial period is absolutely the right way to go.
“We are probably going to find out during that trial period all kinds of features of the agreement that are maybe not the best way to go,” said Elliott. “The long-term strategy should be to work toward a permanent collaboration around wildfires because it’s getting warmer and our risks aren’t going down in the future. It only makes sense that we pool our resources and get coordinated to respond if we need to.”
Electoral Area D director and committee chair Sandy McCormick said the regional district can’t prepare too much for something like this.
The committee voted unanimously to recommend to the board that the board direct staff to proceed with the FDIA program, in collaboration with the BC Wildfire Service, Powell River Community Forest and Powell River Fire Rescue, for an initial trial period for the 2024 summer wildfire season.
The community forest has built an appropriate truck to support FDIA response and BC Wildfire Service staff have provided training weekends for local firefighters interested in the FDIA program. They were attended by nine volunteer firefighters from the Northside and Malaspina Volunteer Fire Departments. Several firefighters from Powell River Fire Rescue also have the training requirements.
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