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By Dylana Kneeshaw

FIRESMART IMPROVEMENTS

Kamloops Fire Rescue seeks approval to hire full-time FireSmart Coordinator

Jan 8, 2024 | 12:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — City council is back in session this week and Kamloops Fire Rescue is hoping to get its approval to hire a full-time FireSmart Coordinator.

Despite summer wildfire concerns and ongoing drought conditions, Chief Ken Uzeloc says there currently isn’t a designated person handling FireSmart-related work in Kamloops.

“The fire department’s been doing some education and assessments off the side our of Life Safety Educator’s desk, the city parks department does some fuel mitigation and management. Again, on top of their regular duties,” explains Uzeloc, “but there’s no one person that’s really formalizing a FireSmart program, and planning out what we’re going to do, where we really need to focus our efforts on.”

If approved, some of the FireSmart Coordinator’s duties would include organizing education and fuel mitigation efforts for Kamloops, and pursuing FireSmart grant opportunities.

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“How do we approve developments, how do we incorporate our bylaws — things like the tree bylaw — different things that really adopt those FireSmart principles to help us be a more resilient community.”

The position would initially be funded through the Working Capital Reserve and eventually the role would be funded by taxation.

Kamloops Fire Rescue expects to get an answer during Tuesday’s (Jan. 9) regular council meeting.