Fernie residents will soon be able to see firsthand how to protect their homes from wildfires as work begins on a demonstration forest.
Fernie Fire and Rescue and BC Wildfire Service personnel started clearing the 1ha area near Ridgemont Crescent on Wednesday, July 11, reducing wildfire risk by cleaning debris, removing garbage and timber, and trimming trees.
It comes as emergency services brace for another destructive wildfire season, with firefighters battling several blazes around the province in recent weeks, including a grassfire on Dicken Rd on July 20.
Fernie fire chief Ted Ruiter said the demonstration forest aimed to educate the public about FireSmart, a national initiative to help property owners and communities prepare for wildfires.
“FireSmart is geared towards homeowners who live in these wooded areas, where the threat of fire is great,” he said.
“The idea behind this demonstration site project is to FireSmart it, so go in there, look at the fuel load and eliminate the fuel load and the threat or the hazard, and in turn have communities do those sorts of things to their own properties because it’s not the fire that causes those issues, it’s the embers and sparks that are blowing into land and people’s yards and their mulch or in their wood piles, and so forth.”
Currently, there are 12 neighbourhoods involved in the FireSmart program in Fernie, with Castle Mountain recently becoming the City’s first certified FireSmart community.
These groups will put the finishing touches to the demonstration forest before signage is erected and it is opened to the public for a FireSmart Day on August 25.
“Their work will be not so much chainsaws and felling trees, but it will be to drag the brush, and all the sections of logs that have been cut up and firewood out of that area and we’re going to chip it and haul it away,” said Ruiter.
“Eventually, we’ll have signage in there, so if you wanted to take a walk through that area to understand more about FireSmart and what you could do with your own property, there would be a few signs in there to explain what we’ve done.”
The demonstration forest is located on City property and the work has been funded by a grant from Columbia Basin Trust.
Fernie Fire and Rescue is training more staff in FireSmart principles and has purchased wildland equipment in preparation for another destructive wildfire season.
“There is a good chance that there won’t be much more precipitation for the remainder of the summer,” said Ruiter.
“It will start to get dry and that’s when the threat increases.”
For more information about FireSmart, visit Firesmartcanada.ca.