2024 Fire at Cooney Bay (Image Credit: Darryl Frankie Abate)

By Michael Reeve

KFR TRAINING

‘Like muscle memory, you know what you need to do’; KFR continuously training response to interface and landscape fires

Jul 12, 2025 | 7:56 AM

KAMLOOPS — With high temperatures and tinder dry conditions around the city, Kamloops Fire Rescue has had its hands full with several landscape and interface fires.

“This time of year we know it’s dry, we’re in a desert area,” said KFR Chief Ken Uzeloc. “I think a good example is a couple weeks ago, the Peterson Creek Fire, we had had a fair bit of rain that week, and that fire started easily, and spread quickly.”

Uzeloc noted that the rain we have received in recent weeks hasn’t been absorbed into the ground.

“We will take rain a night, with no lightning, all summer long, that would be fantastic,” added Uzeloc.

Kamloops has seen fires in Strathcona Park, along the highway and Peterson Creek in recent weeks, while not a confirmed cause, KFR has found campsites near most of the blazes.

Stay Ahead of the Curve with Kamloops' Trusted Property Manager - Rohit Kumar

May 20, 2025

SOUND OFF

SOUND OFF: Forestry isn't a side industry

8h ago

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: No winners in hockey assault trial

16h ago

“What we have seen over the last couple of weeks is a mix. We have had a couple of these fires close to unhoused encampments. But the bulk, the majority of them, there has been evidence of a campfire or cooking fire of some sort,” said Uzeloc. “Problem is it’s really difficult if somebody doesn’t see what starts the fire, to know what exactly started the fire. But they are all human caused, whether they are intentional or accidental.”

The Fire Chief stated the department has seen approximately 41 interface fires in the last four years.

“So 10 a year, somewhere in average in there, and that includes ones like we’ve seen Strathcona, Kenna Cartwright. So we deal with those, we don’t get an overly ton of them,” said Uzeloc.

He clarified the difference between a landscape fire and interface fire is location, with interface fires coming in a natural or unmaintained area, as opposed to a fire in a bush or tree in a yard.

With interface fires a normal part of summer operation, KFR has been expanding their training in recent years to better respond.

“The training in tremendous, especially when you have these incidents that could be high-potential but are lower frequency than our bread and butter ones,” said Uzeloc. “The training you can do to become familiar with that. We have our crews take the basic wildland courses, we had the responding to the interface course that we used through the International Association of Firefighters, we hosted here.”

The Fire Department also works closely with BC Wildfire, a necessity and convenience of location, with their base at the Kamloops Airport.

“This partnership we’ve got with BC Wildfire, even the prescribed burns we did earlier this year is a teaching and learning opportunity for how to set a proper guard, where do you want to drive that fire to and protect to have the best chance and no re-ignition. All that training is valuable to us and helps us expand our performance, so when we do get these calls it’s almost like muscle memory, you know what you need to do,” said Uzeloc.