B.C. premier encourages community co-operation after wildfire tension in Shuswap
David Eby says dealing with destructive wildfires is going to take everyone working together
The firefighting effort in B.C.'s Shuswap region has led to tension between residents — some of whom have defied wildfire evacuation orders — and provincial officials.
In recent days, residents have voiced concerns that not enough is being done to protect their homes. But the B.C. Wildfire Service says defying evacuation orders impedes firefighting efforts and puts firefighters and residents at risk.
People who live in the region say they feel abandonment and even hostility as RCMP patrol the area and provincial officials and the wildfire service speak out about the repurposing or outright theft of wildfire equipment.
Premier David Eby visited a Kamloops-area evacuation centre on Tuesday to meet the B.C. residents who were forced to flee their homes due to the destructive fires.
He spoke to Shelley Joyce, host of CBC's Daybreak Kamloops, on Wednesday to discuss how Shuswap residents can co-ordinate with the B.C. Wildfire Service amid the growing frustration.
This file has been edited for length and clarity.
What is your response to people who defied evacuation orders to save their properties?
The challenge that the B.C. Wildfire Service faces is having a bunch of people doing their own thing. It may assist with their individual property, but there's a larger piece of work that is happening here that needs to be co-ordinated. If we're going to be successful against the fires, we have to work together.
So just really encouraging people to work with the wildfire service and to understand the evacuation orders.
A lot of these people are loggers and have lots of experience in the bush — even more experienced than some of the young recruits hired by B.C. Wildfire — who would like to work together.
The wildfire service recognizes there are people who can provide assistance. What they've seen, though, is people just taking equipment set out for wildfire fighters and deploying it on their own without any communication.
So when the firefighters that are part of the unified command go out for the equipment, it's not there.
The wildfire service is trying to reach out to people to incorporate them into the firefighting effort. I encourage people to reach out to the wildfire service to work as a team to respond to this.
It is necessary to have evacuation orders, and I know the leader of the Conservative Party is saying stay behind, but that puts people at risk, and it complicates things dramatically.
And it means we may not be effective in fighting the fires overall.
B.C. United says your government is blocking food and supplies from people inside the evacuation zone. Is there an actual blockade?
Government is not bringing supplies into areas that are under evacuation order because we don't want people in those areas. There is a reason for those evacuation orders. It's because it's not safe for people to be in there.
There's a complaint that people are trying to get food, fuel, water to their family members, and they can't get through.
It is true that police are stopping people from going into evacuation order areas. There's a number of reasons for that. One, it's not safe, so you want to run fuel and food into an area that's under evacuation order. You're putting yourself at risk. If you get stuck, then firefighters have to be diverted from fighting the fire to go rescue you.
Second, the chief from Skwlax First Nation is asking people to please not do this. His community is devastated. There are many homes that are not occupied, and as he put it yesterday, we can't tell who's going in for a good reason and who's going in to steal stuff, and we need people to listen to officials on this and to stay out of the area.
We've been hearing from seasoned forestry firefighters who have been foresters for 35-40 years. They want to be part of this fight. They've reached out to your government and received no response or a lukewarm response. Why not utilize this kind of talent in a fight against these fires?
Even before this disaster, there was discussion about how we can better model and follow some of the success Australia has had in incorporating volunteer firefighters into their teams.
We've also been looking at incorporating Indigenous communities better into our wildfire response, given that they're in the areas that are disproportionately affected by these fires.
I think there's huge potential for us to leverage those skills, but it's just not there yet.
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With files from Justin McElroy