FireSmart warning issued
Fort Simpson could be next Fort McMurray, forests manager warns
April Hudson
Northern News Services
Thursday, June 16, 2016
LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Fort Simpson could be the next Slave Lake or Fort McMurray, Alta., if a wildfire were ever to breach the subdivisions of Wildrose Acres or Nogha Heights.
Loyal Letcher, regional forests manager for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, left, and forest fire technician Michael Tsetso ran a FireSmart booth outside the Northern store in Fort Simpson on May 7. - NNSL file photo
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Those two subdivisions, built in heavily forested areas, are the greatest fire risk in the Northwest Territories, according to Loyal Letcher, regional forests manager for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Letcher gave a presentation to community members on June 8 discussing Fort Simspon's wildfire emergency plan, as well as the importance of FireSmarting properties.
He said some of his department's staff have been working this summer to clear away brush from Wildrose Acres and Nogha Heights. However, he said more needs to be done.
"It's such a large area, and (our staff) is going to be fighting fires soon, so we won't have men to put out there," he said of the brush-clearing.
"My concern is that people's houses are right in the bush. If a fire started under the right conditions ... it's going to be hard to attack, unless people do more."
The presentation from Letcher included a brief history of fires in the Deh Cho. With the last major fire in the region having occurred in 1994 when the Horn Plateau burned, and the last significant Liard Valley fire having occurred in 1942, Letcher said the region is setting up for another significant fire.
The worst-case scenario, he said, is if that fire were to breach Wildrose.
Letcher said the best preventative measure against wildfires is FireSmart, a procedure where community members clear brush, trees and foliage from around structures. The procedure involves a list of recommendations to provide the best defence against any encroaching fires.
Letcher also said FireSmart won't ensure a structure's safety against a raging wildfire but will give the structure a chance it otherwise would not have.
He encouraged community members to take matters into their own hand, lobby the territorial government for funding or start a FireSmart committee in Fort Simpson.
"Anything helps," he said.
Mayor Darlene Sibbeston said the village does not currently have funding to put toward FireSmarting Wildrose or Nogha Heights but added the village is in the midst of revising its emergency plan.
"We want to gather all the people who are in this plan so we can go over it," she siad, citing the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and ENR as examples.
"It makes more sense to involve everybody."
Sibbeston said she personally would like to see the village canvas the community and its businesses to see if there is any money that can be donated or set aside for FireSmart initiatives.
Once that happens, the village could approach the territorial government with its concerns and see if the government could match its dollars, she added.
In the meantime, Sibbeston encourages community members to take matters into their own hands.
"I think everybody knows (the danger)," she said.
A little more than a dozen people attended the meeting to hear about how the 2015 fire season went and what the current season looks like.
