Residents Share Their Wildfire Experiences with CSRD

Approximately 100 people attended a community conversation meeting in Celista, one of four in-person and two online meetings organized by the CSRD to to listen to residents and share information. (Kicker staff photos)

By Jo Anne Malpass

Residents within the Bush Creek East wildfire area shared their experiences with Columbia Shuswap Regional District emergency services representatives in March and talked one on one about where improvements are needed.

There were four in-person and two online meetings in March. At the final meeting, CSRD staff said there had been as many as over 100 people in attendance at the Celista meeting to about 30 at online events. There had already been over 400 surveys completed as well.

CSRD Communications Tracy Hughes said there is an issue of trust that we need to work on and rebuild. “Tell us your experiences and help us learn to do better. We are committed to making improvements. Some might require working with other agencies or lobbying on your behalf. We're going to take a look back so that we can continue to move forward together and be better and stronger as a result.”

A variety of topics were covered including problems with the Alertable app, delays in warning people to evacuate, why and who called in the RCMP, where emergency services failed to help evacuees, poor conditions of the evacuation route through Seymour Arm, supports for fire smarting properties and conditions faced by residents who stayed behind.

Problems with the Alertable App were often mentioned. Some didn’t get the notice and others received it late. A Celista resident said her house was on fire by 4:45 pm that day. Celista was put on order at 4:13. Tracy Hughes explained there were issues with Alertable, especially in terms of mapping but the CSRD worked with Alertable in the days after August 18 to fix things. She said one of the problems was people not setting it up correctly with their locations. She recommended using a broader area as your location, for example, CSRD Area F.

CSRD CAO John McLean said the CSRD is responsible for issuing evacuation alerts on the advice of BC wildfire. “We need to work at providing accurate information.”

McLean said issuing an evacuation order or alert involves a necessary and legal process. An incident has taken place, BC Wildfire will ask for a coordination call that will have all the essential organizations in place and will recommend and propose an area. The CSRD will look at a map, produce the necessary legal documents to enact that order, prepare notifications using all the tools such as social media, get Alertable ready to go and then get the permission from the CSRD board chair to put the evacuation order in place. “If we have time, we will work with our volunteers, largely search and rescue and possibly fire departments to alert people of the evacuation order.”

People gathered in groups at the Lakeview Centre in Anglemont to discuss how they felt things were handled during the wildfire and how their community was trapped behind the blockade.

Emergency Operations Director Derek Sutherland explained to a group at the Celista meeting, why the RCMP were called in. Because sprinklers were taken from Scotch Creek bridge, BC Wildfire told the CSRD they needed to get control of the situation or BC Wildfire would leave. The situation was handled by RCMP Bronze Command, the operational section of the RCMP command structure that responds to an incident or event. Some residents did receive CSRD access passes in the first few days but eventually the RCMP stopped honouring any CSRD passes. CAO John McLean at another meeting said that the CSRD is responsible for supplying security to evacuated areas, to ensure those properties stay safe. “We need to acknowledge we did ask for the roads to be blocked. We did not tell RCMP how to do that.”

There were also issues with emergency social services. That night a family who’s home was lost to the fire, went to Salmon Arm. They had preregistered a week in advance. Arriving very distraught, they had to go through the full registration process again. Then they were told there was no place to stay in Salmon Arm so they had to go register in Kamloops. When they got to Kamloops, they were told they had to register in Salmon Arm. They went and rented a motel room themselves, then went to stay with family in the lower mainland and then were told they couldn’t receive any financial support unless they came back to Salmon Arm.

Emergency Social Services Cathy Semchuk said she was very sorry about this experience during such a trying time. “We are hearing of some of those cases, where things didn’t work out. We were dealing with Roots and Blues and struggling to get people accommodation and it was a very difficult night for evacuees and volunteers as well. I want to guarantee you are not going unheard. Self registration point has been made, that it is just setting up a profile for you.” The province has been made aware that this system is not working. There also needs to be support for remote services access and etransfers. She also advised people who’s billets have not been reimbursed, to reach out to her for help with this.

Sticky notes were provided to attach to information panels, with people writing about their experiences during the wildfire and suggestions on how the CSRD could do better.

One person who evacuated through Seymour Arm ended up leading 30 vehicles out. He expressed concern about the road conditions and lack of emergency signage. Lack of cell service on the route was also noted. Derek Sutherland said this is a common theme. The CSRD is lobbying forestry and the province to have that road maintained more regularly and plans are in the works to have road signage made up for evacuation routes.

Another resident said there wasn’t early enough notice about the fire. With strong winds forecast and only one road out, she left Thursday because there was no way she could have driven her small car through Seymour Arm. She also said she would like to see more respect and gratitude to the people who stayed and fought the fires, with more recognition of the competence of the people in the area.

Another spoke of the frustration of people in Anglemont and St. Ives with the lack of information, including on whether to stay or go. She praised Lakeview Centre, where she was one of the volunteers, where information was provided by firefighters.

A report on “What we Heard”, prepared by consultants at Monogram Communications, should be ready to present to the CSRD Board in April and then will be publicly available.

Some of the notes that were gathered from the in-person meetings - (credit - Kicker)