CSRD Board Receives ‘What We Heard’ Report

CSRD Bush Creek Community meeting at North Shuswap Elementary School in Celista. (photo credit Kicker)

By Jo Anne Malpass

The final “What We Heard” report from wildfire community conversations, was presented by Jenny Boon from Monogram Communications, to the April Columbia Shuswap Regional District Board meeting.

Responses were gathered from residents impacted by the wildfire at four in-person and two online events held in March and an online survey. The report included a wide range of recommendations to implement before the next fire season regarding communications, emergency planning and support services, fire services and operations.

“CSRD staff are already working on implementing some of the recommendations from the report. They will also be meeting with the BC Wildfire Service to discuss the findings,” said a CSRD Release.

The report includes some background, survey response data, transcribed recordings of the on-line meetings and comments made on the survey.

A summary of themes across all the meetings:

1. Timing of evacuation alert on August 18, 2023. Community members as a whole found the notification came too late and for some individuals, it did not come through at all.

2. Difficulty with the CSRD’s Alertable app and the broadcast-intrusive federal app.

3. Lack of communication leading up to Evacuation Alerts and disappointment with the ongoing communication throughout the wildfire.

4. Support and appreciation for CSRD’s Fire Services team was counterbalanced by feelings that the fire services teams did not do enough to support and share resources with locals who chose to remain behind after the evacuation order.

5. Distress about the treatment of those who chose not to evacuate and were treated like ‘criminals’.

6. Request for the development of community groups who could support fire and wildfire efforts in the event of another emergency.

7. Acknowledgment for the important role of emergency support services such as shelter, clothing, food, and money.

8. More access to mapping information, and better signage for emergency exits from the community, i.e. to Seymour Arm.

9. Recognition of the necessity of emergency preparedness.

10. Uptake in requests for FireSmart information and assessments (23 new requests over the course of the meetings).

11. Several new volunteers for emergency support services (nine volunteer applications and three new Neighbourhood Emergency Program (NEP) coordinator applications).

12. Questions about S-100 training for basic firefighting knowledge.

There were nine recommendations on improvements for communications, six for emergency support services, four for preparedness and FireSmart, two for fire services, and six for operations.

CSRD staff will share what they heard with BC Wildfire.

The full report can be found at https://csrd.civilspace.io/en