The Community FireSmart and Resiliency Committee approved Revelstoke's first wildfire resiliency plan on Wednesday, sparking the city's biggest move on wildfire preparedness in at least a decade.
With the city trailing "behind the times" in wildfire preparedness, according to Lauren Marfleet of Revelstoke Fire Rescue Services, this 123-page report, prepared by forestry consultant firm B.A. Blackwell & Associates, puts forth 37 recommendations for Revelstoke to implement.
The recommendations span FireSmart awareness and training, municipal wildfire risk reduction, emergency gear and equipment allocation, wildfire fuel mitigation, community recognition and assistance, and infrastructure risk assessment.
"There really is no silver bullet for reducing the risk of water (or wildland-urban) interface fires," said Quentin Schmidt, the B. A. Blackwell & Associates forester who produced the report.
He added that because much of Revelstoke's wildland-urban interface is managed by other entities, including Parks Canada, Revelstoke Mountain Resort, Columbia-Shuswap Regional District and B.C.'s Ministry of Forests, the city may often only be able to play limited roles implementing the plan.
Until now, Revelstoke has relied on a community wildfire protection plan since 2006, triggered by the 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park wildfire.
But this community wildfire resiliency plan, approved Jan. 22 for consideration by Revelstoke's committee of the whole on Feb. 13, takes a more proactive, hands-on approach to protecting residential property and wildland-urban interface, said Marfleet, the city's FireSmart co-ordinator who's been involved heavily with the plan.
She suggested that the committee first prioritize a handful of the recommendations, as well as refresh their eligibility for grant funding.
"If we act quickly, we can probably get funding for this wildfire season," she said.
Even with the plan sailed to the committee of the whole, Marfleet noted "it's a lot" to take in and "I think it's a good idea to chew on that (report) and go over it next meeting."
Other committee members echoed that sentiment, also raising questions for Marfleet and Fire Chief Steven DeRousie about emergency response times for Columbia River drainage basin wildfires, firefighter water supply sources, and what wildfire response support would be available from neighbouring jurisdictions.
"That's a good question," DeRousie said, noting the city hasn't had to summon BC Wildfire Service in the last decade. "What would be a typical response time if there's a (wildfire) attack crew in the Columbia basin?"
Marfleet answered that crews can respond and deploy in as few as five minutes, but that "if we had a substantial wildfire or grassfire, we'd be calling in BC Wildfire."
Schmidt's report additionally highlights that the steep topography of the Columbia mountains around Revelstoke complicates matters, and in some cases even prohibits wildfire risk-reduction measures.
DeRousie added that the city's two key emergency water supply sources continue to be at Revelstoke Golf Course and the Greeley Creek watershed, as firefighters don't pull water from the Columbia River due to concerns for fish.
As a starting point, Coun. Tim Stapenhurst advocated using the city's newsletter and Alertable system to amplify the community fire resiliency plan and associated FireSmart principles, in response to the first six of the 37 recommendations.
