Why should a property owner reduce their wildfire risk?
Maybe you don’t mind if your property goes up in flames, but what about your neighbours and the people who would fight to protect it?
Implementing wildfire mitigation strategies, or choosing not to, affects every nearby property, as well as every person involved in responding to the potential wildfire.
During the 2023 BC wildfire season, there were approximately 208 evacuation orders, affecting about 24,000 properties and roughly 48,000 people, with an additional estimate of 137,000 people on evacuation alert.
While most of these individuals were only temporarily displaced, which can be incredibly disorienting, hundreds of structures were lost or damaged, meaning a significant number of people couldn’t return to their homes or businesses following the wildfire suppression efforts. In addition to being emotionally challenging for these property owners, this destruction leaves serious long-term impacts on local communities and economies.
How many people does it take to fight a wildfire?
The BC Wildfire Service went into the 2023 wildfire season with approximately 2,000 firefighting and support personnel, yet more than 1,100 personnel were contracted to provide necessary assistance for fire suppression, tree falling, first aid, catering and security.
Additionally, there were about 135 municipal fire departments, five Indigenous Initial Response crews, and an estimated 1,750 personnel from out-of-province, and even out-of-country, responding to the wildfires.
Unfortunately, fighting wildfires is a dangerous job, and six individuals, including Devyn Gale, Zak Muise, Kenneth Patrick, Jaxon Billyboy, Blain Sonnenberg and Damian Dyson, lost their lives while serving the province of BC in 2023.
Not all wildfires are preventable, however, it is always possible to reduce a property’s wildfire risk by limiting the amount of fuel available, and by increasing a property’s fire resistance, houses, businesses, and livelihoods can be saved.
If your property is not yet prepared for a wildfire, we encourage you to contact SparkProof today.