Prince George-Mackenzie MLA, Mike Morris says he is seeing a lot of BC residents, including those in the Mackenzie area, share concerns on social media about the province’s response to the 2021 wildfire season.
He says he’s been pushing the provincial government to utilize companies such as Safeguard, a mass water delivery system that uses a water pump to put up water walls that can measure up to several kilometres long.
“There’s a lot of frustration in the province, particularly in the Interior and the Southern Interior, I’ve heard personally from ranchers and people living in Merritt and the surrounding area down there that they’re actually quite anxious over the prospect of their communities getting engulfed in flames,” Morris explained.
He says Safeguard can be used in communities located within three kilometres of a substantial water source and could’ve helped mitigate the fire that tore through Monte Lake and burned down multiple structures.
Morris says Mackenzie residents have been especially vocal on the issue since the Pine River wildfire located between Mackenzie and Chetwynd was ignited, and caused multiple structures to burn down in the area.
Safeguard has been used in recent years, and the company even conducted a demonstration in Mackenzie last year which indicated to many residents that the system would work very well because of the community’s close proximity to nearby lakes.
“But they also set up in 2017 or 2018 in Fort St.James for the fires there and they had several kilometres of their hoses laid along the banks or shores of Stuart Lake ready to protect from the fire that was approaching from the west side, and luckily the fire didn’t get close enough for them to turn on the pump,” he added.
Safeguard was also deployed to Burns Lake at the time, but the provincial government also prevented the system to be used and Morris says he isn’t sure why it wasn’t utilized then either.
He adds recently a couple of property owners by Northern Shuswap Lake on the Amnesty Arm hired Safeguard to come and protect their cabins from an approaching fire.
“Apparently the BC Wildfire Service has tried to prevent Safeguard from entering into this area but the situation was resolved by intervention from the MLA in that area and others so for some reason it’s something the government doesn’t want to get involved with,” he added.
Morris adds that this would be a massive undertaking, but the province needs to take all the steps necessary and use all the available resources to fight fires in upcoming years.
“The province should be utilizing every tool in the box and when you have the minister making statements that they’re adequately resourced and they’re doing a great job yet people are watching their homes and communities burn I think they need to re-examine their position on this,” Morris said.