B.C. officials say provincial state of emergency not necessary after calls from Cariboo MLA Doerkson

In his statement, Doerkson said he has heard from a number of private companies offering their services as well as from some firefighters and tree fallers who are not working on fires.

“I am going to continue to push for this until at least I hear from the province that we have all the resources we need,” Doerkson added.

That happened Tuesday (Aug. 4) when provincial officials held their weekly update about wildfire and drought conditions in British Columbia.

“There are currently states of local emergency in place across the province that are giving local authorities, First Nations and us as a province all the power and resources that we need to respond to these emergencies,” Kevin Dunbar, the executive director, provincial response and recovery operations, said.

“[It helps] to keep people safe, to ensure they have accommodations and ultimately getting them home as quickly as we can.”

Dunbar added should the situation get to a point where the province is not able to keep up, the government will declare an emergency as was done during fire seasons in 2021 and 2023.

“When a provincial state of emergency was declared in August 2023, we were facing one of the worst wildfire seasons in B.C.’s history at that point,” Dunbar said. “There was a shortage of temporary accommodations for evacuees and for personnel and there was a need to restrict non-essential travel to the area.”

“We are not in a position where we need to take those actions today operationally to be able to deliver the response and support communities and support evacuees. Again, if we are at a place where these powers would help us operationally with this response, a recommendation will be made at that point.”

Provincial officials also cautioned Tuesday that no amount of resources will help if there is explosive growth on a fire, as was evidenced at the Bradley Creek fire near Vernon on Saturday.

“I think what we are learning and what we’ve been learning over the last five to seven years is that sometimes on some days, like on Saturday’s cold front passage, there [are] never enough resources to try to try to combat that fire,” Cliff Chapman, the director of provincial operations with the BC Wildfire Service, said.

“If we are not on every square inch of this province, then we cannot stop every single fire that could potentially start.”

Upwards of 600 wildfire personnel from across Canada and around the world are expected to arrive in B.C. in the weeks ahead, Chapman added, noting these resources will be deployed based on where they are needed most.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean the highest priority fire every time, it means where we need resources on the ground,” Chapman said. “This first 100 that came, they’re going to Big Bar in the Cariboo Fire Centre to help support the fires in and around the Clinton, 70 Mile area.”

by Victor Kaisar

B.C. officials say provincial state of emergency not necessary after calls from Cariboo MLA Doerkson

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