My name is Ray Perreault and I am a resident of Germansen Landing, B.C. It is a community located approximately five hours northwest of PG or three hours north of Ft. St. James.
This letter is to bring to light the southward thinking of ministers and bureaucrats in this province when allocating resources towards wildfire fighting. We have been dealing with multiple wildfires here since early June, two of which swept through and joined in the middle of our community. Both fires were contained at one point and then, as best to my knowledge, simply abandoned in favour of moving resources southward leaving Mother Nature to take care of the mop up.
It didn't work out, because both of these fires did not get mopped up properly. They sprang back to life, bigger and badder then ever, when we started getting hot, dry weather. One of the local logging camps narrowly missed destruction and another didn't; it succumbed to the flames. I am sure the effort of the logging contractors and crew were more responsible for the saved one rather than anything BC Wildlfire did.
Meanwhile, we still had an out of control fire coming from the west that had very limited support, a couple of helicopters that can only dump when the conditions are right and a ragtag group of structure control people going around to the residences and putting on sprinkler systems. I say ragtag because they were basically a collection of out of work tree planters and a couple of "experts" that spent more time handing out leaflets to the residents about how to protect your farm. Most of the info was very irrelevant to the residences out here.
So some of us got sprinkler setups, but it did no good because only a few had any water source adequate enough to run these systems. So they hired two water trucks, that were better suited to be honey wagons, to fill up bladders located at the bottom of driveways. Sounds good, except these water trucks weren't equipped properly for this task. They had inadequate pumps that were too slow and too small to be effective. The crews that were the structure support "experts" were not even allowed to go on a roof to install a sprinkler because it is too hazardous (?).
Consequently, the majority of sprinklers were not installed correctly and one of mine actually fell off the roof as soon as water was put to it. Another one had no end cap and the water just shot out the end, and yet another didn't turn at all. When the crews eventually came back to fix the sprinkler that wasn't working, they showed up with two pickups, five or six guys and basically stood around trying to figure out how they were going to get up on the roof to replace it. Finally, I asked them to hand the sprinkler to me and I got up on my roof and replaced it myself. There was five or six taxpayer paid workers standing on the ground watching me put my own sprinkler on. "Safety First" has gone too far when it handcuffs the workers to the point where they can't perform their duties.
Ok, before I go any further let me explain that this isn't just some grumpy old man complaining about the inefficiency of our firefighting system, because the actual firefighters work long, hard, very dangerous hours to help protect us all. I am talking more about the inefficient bureaucracy of red tape that seems to care more about pleasing their task masters in Victoria than looking after the very people who elected them. And I am trying to paint a picture of what living in the north and relying on taxpayer funded resources is like, as opposed to what they get down south.
Our fires, even though they were the second largest active out of control fires in the province, next to the Donnie Creek fire, got virtually no coverage in the local media, provincial media or national media. Yet a two-day evacuation on the outskirts of Kelowna early in the summer was covered by the national news. We have been under evacuation order for most of the summer and my brother and sister didn't even know about the fires until I contacted them and told them. The same with virtually everyone we know.
So, back to the structure protection effort, these systems were up for a grand total of one week and then removed because, we were told, the resources were needed elsewhere and we weren't under imminent threat. Side note: three houses out here were lost this summer to these fires. We told them the threat was far from over and they were pulling the equipment prematurely. But, we're no experts, so what do we know?
A week later we get the word another crew is coming in to set up sprinkler systems on everyone’s home again (?). Again, more inefficiency.
This time they get about half of the houses partially done before they once again need the resources down south and take it all down and leave. By this time, I am wondering if our province is so inadequately provisioned and they are forecasting more wildfire seasons like this, why are they not just simply getting more equipment, because surely they are going to need it in the future?
The answer that seems to slap me in the face is our community and all small communities like ours, mainly in the north, simply aren't high enough profile to make our politicians look good in the eyes of the voters down south, therefore they wouldn't win any voting points. But spend the province’s resources in the Shuswap, Okanagan, or Kelowna and you pretty much cover a large portion of the voting public. And to top it off our representatives don't speak up for fear of losing what little they have and being branded a troublemaker.
Our houses here have as much, if not more, reason to protect because some of these people have been out here multi-generational and are made of the stock that built this province and country. We don't have million dollar out of the box houses that anyone with money can buy. Instead, we have hand-built houses that were labours of love, sometimes built with the help of the valley and all the neighbours. You won't see that in the city. We deserve to be protected the same as that multimillion-dollar home in the Okanagan or that waterfront cabin on the Shuswap.
We lost three residences to the fires this summer and, with luck, no more. One was a multi-generation home with 50+ years of memories for the current owner, one was a young couple trying to start up a business and be independent, another a part-time resident who uses their place to escape the rat race a few times a year. They are all as valuable as those down south.
With all that being said, now that the fires have slowed down south, we are finally getting the resources we need to get us out of trouble, although for three residents, it was too little too late.
I would also like to thank from the heart, as all the residents would, a huge thank you to the brave men and women who are trying their best right now to save our valley and homes.
I would encourage everyone in B.C. who feels they don't get their fair share of representation because of locale and profile to send this letter to their MLA and all who can make a difference.
Thank you.
Ray Perreault
Germansen Landing
