Minister Greene in Kamloops following provincial state of emergency declaration

The province currently has more than 100 active fires burning, with more than 21,000 people evacuated from their homes, with over 10,000 others on alert.

“We are having more frequent and more severe fire seasons and that trend is going to continue. Being prepared is a team sport though, the province is being prepared, the federal government is doing their part, but people in communities need to be prepared. So that is why we have the resources available at PreparedBC, for people to be prepared for different types of emergencies,” added Greene.

Minister Greene referenced the severe drought effecting the province, along with more lightning strikes than a year ago as for how challenging this summer has been.

“The conditions that we are seeing on the ground right now, the Wildfire Service is saying we’ve never seen before. We have never seen the level of dryness, the level of small particles and all of the science behind fire risk, it’s extreme,” said Greene.

“One month we see kind of no precipitation at all. For 60 days only we see 18mm, normally it should be 48mm of rain,” said Chun-Chao Kuo, Hydrologist with the BC River Forecast Centre.

The province has made some changes, around harvesting for example to attempt to combat the drought conditions.

“Climate change is certainly frustrating some of those efforts because of the explosiveness really of the fire conditions that we are seeing right now,” said Greene.

by Michael Reeve

Minister Greene in Kamloops following provincial state of emergency declaration

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