JOHNSON – The real reason wildfire victims aren’t allowed to stay and fight

JUST WHAT’S THE PROBLEM with ignoring an evacuation order and staying to fight a wildfire?

“Im trying to save my house.”

This very reasonable question has been heard many times from those in Kelowna and more recently in the North Shuswap, with the explosion of the Adams Lake wildfire towards Scotch Creek, Celista and the rest of the region.

In the last few days, the occasional murmur of discontent regarding people staying back to save their own property, seems to have turned into a rambunctious chorus of calls levied against provincial officials, ministers and even Premier David Eby to justify government demands via evacuation orders that people must leave their properties.

The Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma has repeated diligently the need for people to respect, adhere and follow evacuation orders, and seems to be very unwilling to allow anyone to do anything else whatsoever.

This year, the sheer volume of fronts that the BC Wildfire crews have to work at and manage, is way beyond what has been experienced before. Crews are stretched thin, people are seeing no one near the fires that threaten their own properties. It seems reasonable that people want to do something to protect their homes and lives.

Surely, Minister Ma can appreciate the assistance of anyone who is able to man a shovel, or run a sprinkler to take care of their own space, but no … all we hear is absolute … rigid … adherence to evacuation order talking points.

Why? What’s the deal? Why don’t they let us save our own houses if they don’t have the personnel available to do it?

It’s simple really. Legal and financial liability. Nothing else.

As of right now there is no liability from the province; they told you to leave so you have no case against the province if you suffered losses by action or inaction by the province. They are covered by various disaster relief and actioning legislation. There is no case.

Now let’s open that can o’ worms.

If any provincial government person, from the premier or a minister, all the way down to a Wildfire red shirt or an RCMP officer knocking on your door, gave any sort of actual formal acquiescence for us to stay and save our home, then the provincial government is wholly liable for any consequences of that allowance.

There is no circumstance that doesn’t leave the province open to lawsuits.

Let’s say at one end of the spectrum, you’re a rancher, with earlier in life wildfire safety tickets and experience, with some of your own heavy equipment and a decent waterpump, and you have already sent off the family and kids, and you are left with a couple capable hired ranch hands to manage hose. Seems like the perfect situation to leave you to it … so the government representative gives you formal permission to remain to fight an oncoming fire:

But you don’t have quite enough sprinklers or hose to protect enough of your property should the wind turn and move the fire in an unprotected direction into your property … the province could easily be found liable for leaving you without enough equipment to manage any eventuality the fire throws at you.

That’s not just a suit filed at the Province from your own lawyer, but your property insurance company’s lawyers as well. Insurance companies love it when government shoves open a door to easy litigation, any time there is even a chance to limit their own insurance payout. They are guaranteed to fight anything to save money.

Now let’s throw in, that although you survived the surrounding fire on the roof of your house, a hired ranch hand was caught out and dies or is severely or life changing injured from the fire. Lawsuits are going to happen, from the person’s family towards you, or if you’re insured for liability as an employer or rancher … the insurance company. That insurance company would go after the province for putting you and the family of the dead ranch hand at risk by allowing this. Now it’s a Worksafe issue. Is WCB going to pay for this?

Oh … the quagmire.

One way or the other, all would lead back to the provincial government.

Now, let’s say at the far other end of that spectrum, your neighbour (who has no previous wildfire experience, no heavy equipment and six little kids in the house), finds out you were allowed to stay … so takes that as enough reason for him to also stay with his half-inch garden hose. Boom … the government is wholly liable for anything that goes wrong there as well. Imagine the headlines.

Now … imagine after a few years of us all culturally learning that ‘we can all fight wildfires’ … and a horrible year burns through … what do we end up with but thousands or tens of thousands of lawsuits across the province due to unforeseen circumstances, but based on actions because the government let a few, some, or all who wanted to, stay behind.

Imagine not just the billions of tax dollars lost to settlements or lost cases, but our court system would literally grind to a halt with the volumes of increased cases before it.

All of the above, by the way, paid for by our tax dollars. Hospital wings start to close.
It’s a no win from any angle.

It is much, much better to maintain evacuation order rules that will mean making people leave their homes, then put them up in a neighbouring town for possibly years (see Lytton crowd still living in hotels), then as government sitting back over the long term and let the system play out as to whether or not insurance (if there is any) or some disaster relief funding will rebuild your home.

But by then it won’t be the top news story and their focus will be on an upcoming election.

Oh … and letting you to sign some kind of a legal waiver to release the Province from any liability, will change nothing. “Your Honor, I signed it under duress, flames were getting close, I felt I had no choice.”

‘Nuff said.

So … no … don’t expect any provincial government to change direction on the wildfire evacuation order process, or any accompanying verbiage from Ministers or Premiers. Never expect them to actively ‘let’ you stay.

Oh … and don’t ‘borrow’ their pumps and hoses if you do stay … they don’t take kindly to it.
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On the same subject, but a different hot take:

This year, and during other bad wildfire years, we have seen Canadian Forces personnel be deployed in fire zones. On the surface it seems like pretty good use of teams able to sustain themselves and work remotely … it’s a good fit.

The problem is, these military soldiers can currently only be used to go into zones where there is zero risk to themselves or another wildfire crew. Usually if they go into the bush they are deployed into areas long after initial response crews have left, and after contract crews have already pulled out, and initial mop up has been completed, and they are tasked with continued mop up operations.

Why is this possibly large force of well-disciplined, troop-oriented, very physically fit people, not assigned to where the help is actually needed the most, ie; The live fire zone?

The problem is one of training.

None of these Canadian military forces have been given any more than a couple hours cursory, introductory training of what to do and what to watch for in wildfire zones.

That makes them not just limited in what they can safely do, but literally makes them a safety liability for themselves and others in a dangerous active fire zone.

The solution is easy: make it mandatory that all appropriate Canadian forces land based military personnel be provided with a full S-100 Basic Fire Suppression and Safety course, (two-day, 16-hour course). (Or an equivalent course that is recognized in every province in the country like this one is in B.C.)

This is the exact minimum training required by BC Wildfire for their contracted fire crews, or anyone on the fireline. Whenever we hear about ‘wildfire crews’ in the news, they have this training.

Among a lot more, this training provides an understanding about:
– Standard Fire Orders
– L.A.C.E.S. = Lookouts, awareness, communications, escape routes, safety zones
– Danger Trees
and all the other info to be able to work in a fire zone safely around other any wildfire fighter.

Then you have a very large, and on call force of wildfire trained workers who can arrive on scene, into any fire zone in Canada and be on page with everyone around them, and able to perform the tasks needed under orders from local Wildfire leadership, understanding the zone they are in, recognize any limitations they come across, with their primary focus on safety.

Seems like a simple way to answer the recent calls for some kind of ‘National Wildfire Force’.

We already have the ‘force’; we just need to train them.

David Johnson is a Kamloops resident, community volunteer and self described maven of all things Canadian.