EDITORIAL – Suddenly, there’s new urgency to a secondary Juniper exit
Juniper exit to Rose Hill. (Image: CFJC Today file photo, 2016)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
THERE’S NOTHING LIKE a scary-as-hell wildfire to renew a decades-long debate about how to get away in emergency situations.
The fire between Juniper and Valleyview last week resulted in a sudden evacuation that has a lot of folks worried about the fact there’s only one regular road to and from Juniper.
Some of those evacuated had to wait for agonizing minutes before even getting out of their driveways due to the resulting traffic congestion, and it apparently took some of them up to two hours to escape the area.
The concern about emergency exits goes back 50 years to the creation of Juniper itself but this is the first actual emergency that required a fast evacuation.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
There needs to be two more paved roads out of Juniper, both east and west
This is the changing reality: any place you build in Kamloops has to be fire safe. Juniper is basically a fire trap. People are still in the pre-global-warming frame of mind. On July 1st, we were served notice. Without a doubt, there needs to be (paved) road east out Juniper. At the same time, the city needs to look at the safety of other places, and future developments.