As the wildfire situation went from bad to worse over the B.C. Day long weekend, previously unaffected communities found themselves declaring states of emergency and issuing evacuation orders and alerts. Province-wide, however, there was no such emergency declaration. Why? According to wildfire officials who spoke at a news conference Tuesday morning, declaring a provincial state of emergency would allow the B.C. government to use a set of “tools” that it doesn’t currently need. As examples of measures a provincial state of emergency would enable, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Kelly Greene listed travel restrictions, rationing of supplies and commandeering accommodations for wildfire evacuees. “Those tools are not needed right now,” she said. “Right now, every single jurisdiction in B.C. that is fighting a wildfire has a state of local emergency in place. That enables our first responders and firefighters to take the action that they need to fight the wildfire, protect communities and protect lives.” Greene acknowledged that the wildfire situation in the province is evolving, and said the government “won’t hesitate” to declare a provincial state of emergency if one becomes necessary. Thousands on evacuation order Tuesday’s news conference followed a long weekend that saw a cold front dramatically shift the landscape of wildfires in the province. The Bradley Creek wildfire, which was discovered July 31, exploded in size, sweeping through Okanagan Indian Band reserve land and along the northwest shore of Okanagan Lake. The band said in its own news conference Tuesday morning that approximately 230 homes had been destroyed by the blaze. As of 9 a.m. Tuesday, there were 37 evacuation orders in place across the province, affecting roughly 8,000 people and 7,300 properties, according to Greene. A further 37 evacuation alerts affected an additional 7,100 people and 3,800 properties. Greene, Forests Minister Ravi Parmar, Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Minister Randene Neill, and B.C. Wildfire Service director Cliff Chapman each began their remarks at Tuesday’s news conference by thanking the public and emergency personnel for their response to the recent “challenging” wildfire conditions. Chapman also warned that dry lightning is possible later in the week, which could cause additional wildfires to spring up across the provincial Interior, which is facing a “drying trend” with the weather pattern this week, on top of existing drought conditions. ‘We are always supported’ The BCWS director sought to answer a question he said his organization “gets a lot.” “We are often asked about, ‘Do we have enough resources?’ And are we being told that we’re not able to bring in more?” Chapman said. “I just want to address this really clearly: We are always supported to bring in what is required to try to do everything we can in this province. I think what we are learning and we have been learning over the last five to seven years is that sometimes, on some days, like on Saturday’s cold front passage, there is never enough resources to try to combat that fire. If we are not on every square inch of this province, then we cannot stop every single fire that could potentially start.” The question and Chapman’s answer to it were echoed a number of times during the news conference, with reporters asking officials about online criticism of the government’s response to wildfires, the need for more preventative forestry work outside of wildfire season, and why Premier David Eby hasn’t taken a more prominent role in wildfire response this year. Underlying each of these questions, as well as the one about declaring a provincial state of emergency, is a sense that outcomes like the one seen in the Okanagan over the weekend should be preventable, if only something in the provincial response were different. Time and again, officials responded to this type of question by reiterating that they are doing everything they can to protect British Columbians, thanking firefighters for their efforts and noting the “challenging” situation. One question even made this subtext explicit, citing a Kelowna construction manager who claimed to have set up sprinklers on his job site in the Bradley Creek fire area and saved the buildings. This individual, the reporter said, claimed nearby fire departments like Kelowna and Lake Country were prevented from assisting with structure protection in the path of the Bradley Creek fire because the province hadn’t authorized them to help. Both Parmar and Chapman said they were unfamiliar with the specifics of the situation and would attempt to follow up, but Chapman was adamant that it’s the crews on the ground, not executives elsewhere in the province, who make firefighting decisions. “We do often get this type of question, and I just want to dispel this idea that we’re waiting for someone in Victoria or Kamloops to give the green light,” Chapman said. “We give our people on the ground the ability to make decisions on the ground, and their first and foremost thought is, ‘How do I protect the humans? How do I protect the first responders and how do I protect the people who are being evacuated?’” The Bradley Creek fire wasn’t burning in Lake Country or Kelowna, so those departments would’ve had to be tasked through mutual aid, Chapman explained. Making such a request is something the local fire department and the BCWS crews on the ground discuss and decide on together, he said. “It was very, very challenging on the west side of Okanagan Lake,” Chapman said. “That fire had sustained winds of 85 km/h, so the question of responder safety was significant.”
