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California living our nightmare

During the 2017 and 2018 wildfire season in the Central Interior, tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes, many of them coming to Prince George for extended periods of time.
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A burned out vehicle sits in the Seminole Springs Mobile Home Park on Sunday after wildfires tore through the neighborhood in Agoura Hills, Calif.

During the 2017 and 2018 wildfire season in the Central Interior, tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes, many of them coming to Prince George for extended periods of time. Dozens of homes were lost and significant areas of forest and ranchland were burned but fortunately, no one died as a direct cause of the fires.

A rapid response, timely communication, government and community coordination, neighbourly assistance and some good fortune prevented these tragedies from turning deadly. Luck was also on the side of the people of Fort McMurray in 2016, with the only person killed dying in a car accident while the entire city of 80,000 was being evacuated.

Sadly, the same fortune Fort McMurray and the Central Interior enjoyed has not translated to the current California wildfires. So far, more than 6,400 homes have been destroyed and 42 people are dead with the death toll expected to climb as investigators go through Paradise, a town of 27,000 people all but wiped off the map. So far, they have found charred bone fragments of people trapped there by a fire so hot that it melted aluminum.

Anyone in this region who thinks that such a disaster could never happen here is hopelessly naive.

The California wildfires have been fuelled by severe drought, ongoing hot weather and high winds, conditions that have certainly been seen in this region and across much of Western Canada with increasing regularity.

As Darby Allen, the retired Fort McMurray fire chief, told the Prince George audience at the Bob Ewert Dinner and Lecture earlier this year, the original plan to evacuate the city was to send everyone south. A staff member spoke up, telling Allen the fire was moving too fast and the 30,000 residents north and west of the Athabasca River had to go north, even though there was nothing there but the oil sands camps and the village of Fort McKay.

In hindsight, Allen was convinced that hundreds or more people would have died on the highway south or in the city if the original evacuation plan had been followed. That's how narrowly a catastrophe was averted.

Our response to the devastation and deaths in California should be more than "those poor people." For those who can, donations to the Red Cross to help the victims of the fire are most appreciated.

Looking ahead, however, this region's response must be "next time, it could be us." Municipalities, regional districts and the provincial government need to plan for nightmare scenarios, like what's happened in California.

We've been lucky so far. Better to be ready for the worst than to tempt fate once more.

-- Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout