LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Fort Simpson will not be updating its emergency response plan to include a detailed fire evacuation plan, despite direction from village council last week.

A complex of seven fires around Antoine Lake are nearly all contained by fire crews, who are now attacking the largest of the fires. In this photo, a second fire in the complex, just four kilometres out of Jean Marie River, has nearly been extinguished. - photo courtesy of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources

At a committee meeting on July 8 with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR), councillors changed course, deciding any emergency would be best handled by practices already in place.

The committee meeting was called after a fire by Antoine Lake 30 kilometres south of Fort Simpson reached 100 square-kilometres in size. Two days before the meeting, councillors said it was time to sit down and hash out what would happen in the event of an evacuation.

However, representatives from MACA and ENR told councillors a plan is already in place and the village should focus on its plan for disseminating information to the public.

"I think some people in the community expect us to have a step-by-step, scenario-by-scenario plan, which isn't possible with fire situations," said Mayor Sean Whelly after the committee meeting.

Currently, ENR will let MACA know if a situation requires evacuation. MACA is responsible for informing the village, which would then inform its residents.

MACA's Deh Cho regional superintendent Mike Drake attended the committee meeting to discuss what role the village would play. He said there are too many possible scenarios for a structured plan to be in place.

"All those scenarios have been thought through, and all (the) different escape routes have been thought through - no question. But which one do you use at the time? That's a different story," he said after the meeting.

"There's more than one way out of here and every one of those is dependent on the (situation)."

Keeping the plan flexible is essential to a successful evacuation, he said.

Whelly said the village will be looking at precautionary measures to prevent fires and will also be updating its list of resources in the event of an emergency. That was last done in the spring.

"That includes all the equipment companies in town have and might be available to use - heavy equipment, boats," he said.

The village will also be engaging with the Department of Transportation for an emergency exercise in the fall.

"That (will) give us the chance to practise our emergency operations centre's procedures and communications systems, which we were told by MACA is the important role we have to fulfil," Whelly said.

He added that the village will look at increasing the fire breaks around the community, as well.

"It's better to prevent an emergency than to plan for one," he said.

"Everyone is kind of aware when fires are in the area. There are certain precautions people can take as individuals - having camping gear, keeping track of things and knowing where they are so evacuations can be done quickly. Everyone can take advice from FireSmart, as well and have extra supplies readily available."

Fire crews focused on the 100 square-kilometre fire this week, and despite estimates from Frank Lepine, ENR's director of forest management, that the fire would take nearly a month to control, Deh Cho forests manager Loyal Letcher said he hopes to have the fire contained within a week.

On July 13, ENR reported that the fire had received about 25 millimetres of rain over the weekend and is currently being held. Crews are mopping up three areas of the fire.

Early this week, fire danger in the Deh Cho region was listed as low. As of Tuesday afternoon, no new fires had been reported for 48 hours.

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