Re: Opinion: Government needs to work smarter fighting wildfires
Chris and Marg hit the nail on the head with their published opinion in the Citizen on September 28. I recommend everyone read the article. The fires caused many thousands of hectares to burn, destroyed hundreds of structures (likely over $ 200 million as mentioned by the Parfitts) and badly impacted our economy on almost all levels! I do not even want to list the very bad impacts on our health.
We should not accept the term “new normal”, because it is not the new normal and it is up to all of us to do something about it. Yes, we are dealing with climate change, but that does not mean that we should have many more fires. Any fire requires ignition, which can be caused by lightning, but by dry lightning mainly. The recent number of fires is to a good percentage due to human causes, which includes arson. Yes, how can we prevent that from happening and why is not every fire cause being investigated? I understand that this is being asked for a lot, but a vast number of fires started near a lake, a river or creek, or other easy access via trail and off road. What kind of human cause comes to mind? Why do we allow a fire to expand and then cannot fight it anymore?
No doubt, we need more firefighters, firefighters who should have year-round employment, completely independent from a fire season, whatever that may be. The cost would be only a fraction of the financial damage caused to our economy. The impact on our health due to bad air high should not be tolerated! Something serious must be done about it.
Different articles have been written about our fires and how to tackle them. I think it is time to establish a working group NOW, consisting of some mayors, some regional district chairs and certainly private stakeholders.
Dr. Albert Koehler
Prince George
