By Barb Brouwer
Contributor
Feedback on the Columbia Shuswap Regional District’s role in the Bush Creek East Wildfire of 2023 will be a hot topic at the April 18 board meeting in Salmon Arm.
In March the CSRD conducted feedback sessions with residents including four in-person meetings in Sorrento, Anglemont, Celista and at Quaaout Lodge, along with two online sessions.
A survey with more than 400 participants was also used to allow residents an opportunity to share their experiences with the wildfire.
Monogram Communications, an independent consulting firm, conducted the six sessions, with representatives of the CSRD involved, to ensure the report is an accurate reflection of the feedback.
Following the community conversation events, Monogram Communication completed the What We Heard report, which is now available for public review at csrd.bc.ca in the Reports section under the Emergency Management Reports tab, as well as on the agenda for the April 18, 2024 Regular Board Meeting.
There is a lot of background information contained in the 204-page report, including automated transcriptions of comments made during the online sessions.
Several common themes emerged from the conversations and were consistent across all locations of the in-person engagements, and the virtual sessions.
• Timing of the evacuation alert on Aug. 18, 2023 – Community members as a whole found the notification came too late and for some individuals, it did not come through at all.
• Difficulty with the CSRD’s Alertable app and the broadcast-intrusive federal app.
• Lack of communication leading up to evacuation alerts and disappointment with ongoing communication throughout the wildfire.
• Support and appreciation for CSRD’s Fire Services team was counterbalanced by feelings that the fire services teams did not do enough to support and share resources with locals who chose to remain behind after the evacuation order.
• Distress about the treatment of those who chose not to evacuate and were treated like ‘criminals’.
• Request for the development of community groups who could support fire and wildfire efforts in the event of another emergency.
• Acknowledgment for the important role of emergency support services such as shelter, clothing, food
and money.
Read more: Shuswap group pleased to see wildfire concerns recognized by B.C. task force
Read more: Columbia-Shuswap officials call for review of B.C.’s wildfire response
• More access to mapping information, and better signage for emergency exits from the community, i.e. to Seymour Arm.
• Recognition of the necessity of emergency preparedness.
• Some 23 new requests for FireSmart information and assessments over the course of the meetings.
• Several new volunteers for emergency support services including nine volunteer applications and three new Neighbourhood Emergency Program (NEP) coordinator applications.
• Questions about S-100 training for basic firefighting knowledge.
“We know the community was anxious to share their thoughts, and we appreciate that so many residents took the time to share,” says John MacLean, chief administrative officer.
“Having recently received the report ourselves, it has a lot of information to review. We are spending some time at a staff level to digest what was heard and to look at how those learnings can be incorporated into our emergency plans.”
A key part of the Community Conversations process is to share the information from the What We Heard report with the CSRD’s agency partners, including the BC Wildfire Service, the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Change, the RCMP, and numerous others.