The Wildfire Resiliency and Training Summit will kick off in Prince George this weekend.
More than 650 members of the BC FireSmart community will converge on the Northern Capital for the five-day conference, which includes firefighter training and workshops.
“This will be the second official Wildfire Resiliency and Training Summit,” said BC FireSmart Program Lead Hannah Swift.
“Previously, there were two separate conferences, one that focused on wild urban interface firefighter training, and one that took place separately that focused on FireSmartBC.”
Swift said attendees will include First Nations members, local governments, Provincial staff, fire departments, local FireSmart representatives, wildfire mitigation specialists, firefighters researchers, emergency managers, wildfire scientists and industry planners.
The theme for the event, is “recover, rebuild, prepare,” recognizing the importance of resilience after experiencing unprecedented wildfires.
“It’s really about us doing our part, and everyone doing their part, and having it in Prince George really does commemorate the challenging season that they did face last year, and the early onset of the fire season they’re likely to see up in that region of BC,” Swift said.
2023 was the worst year on record for wildfires in BC, with the Prince George Fire Centre seeing the most hectares burnt.