Image Credit: CFJC Today

By James Peters

FireSmart

Kamloops Fire Rescue offering free fire safety assessments for local properties

Apr 27, 2020 | 2:27 PM

KAMLOOPS — Homeowners curious about how susceptible their properties are to fire can now find out, thanks to Kamloops Fire Rescue (KFR).

KFR has opened up its free FireSmart assessment program, meaning homeowners can invite experts to have a look at their properties.

“We’ll come out, we’ll walk around a safe distance from people and give them some advice,” KFR Life Safety Educator Lyle Weniger told CFJC Today. “The focus we want for people is to really focus on the immediate ten metres from your home because that’s the most valuable area when you’re trying to FireSmart your property.”

Keeping a home properly removed from accelerants is especially valuable during wildfire season, when embers are prone to floating long distances, potentially landing on cedar or juniper bushes.

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“Falling embers can travel up to two kilometres and these embers are landing on those bushes and that’s what is lighting up the houses,” Weniger said. “We’re going out and encouraging people to remove those fuels from around their homes.”

“A lot of Kamloops, obviously, is in interface areas. We’re looking for areas like Juniper Ridge, Rose Hill, areas in Westsyde and Batchelor Heights. They all kind of have those areas that are close (to forested areas).”

As an added incentive to have residents sign up for assessments, the City of Kamloops is offering free chipping and chip removal for the first 50 property owners who sign up.

“We’ll go out during assessment and we’ll identify the materials that would [threaten] their homes in a wildfire,” said Weniger. “Those materials are removed; we will chip and remove those materials. But we won’t do general yard waste or things that aren’t related to FireSmart.”

To request an assessment, email firesafety@kamloops.ca with the following information:

• Name
• Address
• Phone Number

Check out this website for more on FireSmart principles.