Wildfire report to help Cariboo prepare for next emergency

The Cariboo Regional District has just released a new report looking at last summer's wildfire season.

It contains 70 recommendations to help prepare for future wildfire seasons including suggestions on communications, public educationand prevention.

The report follows a year when48 per cent of residents in the Cariboo were evacuated from their homes and more than 200 buildings were destroyed.

The report's author Tim Conrad heard from more than 2,600 people between October and December of 2017.He conducted24 community meetings along with an online survey and a Facebook live event.

"We know it was a difficult summer and getting them to relay the information of how it went for them ... was really quite amazing to us," said Conrad.

The need for improved communications during crises was a commonconcern heard duringthe consultations.

That comes as no surprise for Cariboo Regional District chairMargo Wagner.

"We all know that we don't have cell service and we all know that we don't have high speed Internet and we all know we can't get a radio station most of the time. But you don't really think about it until you're in an emergency and then it becomes a necessity. So that brought that front and centre," saidWagner.

Wagner blames the region's topography as the main reason for poor cellular phonereception, but says people in the Cariboo have been asking the provincial government to improve infrastructure for years.

Committeeto start implementingrecommendations

The report also saysoutside agencies should to tap into local knowledge during an emergency.

"We would have been totally hooped without the massive numbers of RCMP and the army and other volunteers that came into help us," she said.

"But when they come in with no local knowledge of the area and then we've got people who could help in this regard then it can be very frustrating."

This week, the committee plans to go through the recommendations and start implementing simple changes. Itwill lobby thegovernment for support in larger issues.

"It's not if we have another fire season like we just had, it's when. I'm hoping it's not going to be this summer but who knows," said Wagner.

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