A FireSmart Salt Spring

January 17

Nineteenjoined this ASK Salt Spring gathering welcoming Fire Chief Jamie Holmes and 

acting Assistant Fire Chief Warren Nuyens. After our Territorial Acknowledgement, we learned what “excited and delighted” our guests. Warren began by sharing his pleasure with his role interacting with our community on exciting fire prevention projects, including FireSmart and the high school Cadet Camp (http://www.cadetcamp.ca/). This Cadet Camp offers our seniors an opportunity to see some of the exciting parts of firefighting, even including trusting equipment enough to enter a smoke-filled room and rappelling down a three-story building. We later learned that this long-running program has encouraged a number of cadets to enter firefighting as a career. These cadets include women who, as high schoolers, learn that they have the abilities and physical requirements to be career firefighters. 

Jamie spoke of his understanding of his responsibility as the leader while also empowering his firefighters to use their passion to take the lead on important community programs like the Cadet Camp and FireSmart. He acknowledged Warren and, before him, Mitchell Sherin, for their commitment to these important community-based programs.

Jamie then offered us a brief history of FireSmart (https://firesmartbc.ca/). While in other areas of the province FireSmart was equated to “moonscaping,” the clearing of all flammable landscaping, Salt Springers almost immediately embraced FireSmart as an immensely practical way to protect ones property from fire. In essence it addresses flammable objects around our homes in three different categories: 

  1. Areas closest, within 1.5 metres: In this area, smart homeowners will make sure that there are no flammable materials piling up nor flammable trees and bushes touching their home. 
  2. The area extending 1.5 meters to 10 metres: We can protect from fire by limbing trees to 2 metres from the ground, clearing debris under trees like needles and cones, and working with an arborist to identify either adolescent or aging trees that could be culled to avoid a solid tree canopy that could fuel a fire racing toward our home. 
  3. The area 10-30 metres: Those with larger properties may also want to look at the areas more distant from their homes to make sure that debris and dead trees have not piled up to create wildfire fuel. 

Simply put, look around your home and identify items that could fuel embers when a wildfire threatens. It is these burning embers that will create the multiple fires accompanying a fire event. That could include replacing the more flammable juniper hedges and Doug firs with less flammable deciduous options or replacing wood chips with gravel on nearby paths. Be wary, also of eves and roof caps that could be providing a spot for flammable needles. And, screen air intakes to your home to prevent embers from entering. Later in our conversation, Jamie suggested watching where the wind blows leaves on your property. This is the same spot burning embers are likely to gather in a fire.

And, FireSmart can help each of us identify and address these dangers. If your home is defensible, it is far more likely to survive a fire event. Not only will it be  slower to be engulfed in flames, as firefighters asses where to put their efforts, homes with the best chance of surviving will get their first efforts. And, we all want our homes to be top on that list if disaster threatens. 

Initially a locally-funded initiative, provincial funding for FireSmart increased dramatically after COVID. This provincial funding, managed by UBCM – Union of British Columbia Municipalities (https://www.ubcm.ca/) – and allocated through CRD, has increased to $50,000 a year for our local FireSmart projects as well as an additional $50,000 available to the entire CRD, some of which also goes to Salt Spring projects. 

FireSmart assessments continue to focus on individual homeowners. Recently, though, a local initiative has began to include neighborhoods with a vegetation removal rebate program. While our firefighters will still come to individual homes to assess first risks, support is also available for six or more neighbours working together to FireSmart their neighbourhood. In addition to this free assessment of fire prevention measures, there is FireSmart funding to pay up to $500 for a chipper to turn that flammable material into compost. Interested? You may want to begin your FireSmart journey here:(https://saltspringfire.com/firesmart-ssi/. By taking a neighbourhood approach, ever-increasing expanses of defensible areas will be created, slowing the progress of a fire. 

Even small fire protection investments in time and money have the potential of reaping huge benefits if fire threatens. Look around your home; enroll your neighbours, and invite our firefighters to help protect your home. You may want to use this calendar to book your assessment: https://saltspringfire.com/firesmart-ssi/firesmart-residential-assessments/firesmart-residential-assessment-request/) . . . now! 

While participants acknowledged the wisdom of the new FireSmart neighborhood focus, some were concerned that the long-standing partnership with volunteers fighting invasives was no longer in place. We learned that this shift was largely a result of its success, resulting in the collection of mountains of invasives to chip. The magnitude of this popular program simply overwhelmed the capacity of fire volunteers. It also required more space than was available at our firehalls to collect and chip this massive amount of invasive debris. Although the Local Community Commission stepped in to help fund this invasive chipping project this year through a Grant-in-Aid, it was clear to many that, despite the great success of the FireSmart Program, a solution for the disposal of our invasives is also desperately-needed. 

One participant asked if lithium batteries were a fire concern. We learn that, yes, batteries that are not CSA-approved are a concern (https://www.csagroup.org/testing-certification/product-areas/power-generation-energy-storage/battery-energy-storage/?srsltid=AfmBOoqOq3YbfJqrfY-Y0jrBlvIlEZO9RADPnVm5KO654jocg-Lr_TNt). Also, when your lithium battery is at the end of its life, do not leave it on your property but take it to the Recycle Centre for safe disposal. Jamie also suggested that, if you have collected a sizable array of batteries to power your tools, you might consider storing them safely in a metal storage unit.   

Firefighters are also partnering with our Rotary Club (https://saltspringislandrotary.com/) to provide address signs to help them actually find us in an emergency. Many of us searching for an address may have a small inkling of the deep frustration firefighters experience racing to a fire in the middle of the night, wasting precious minutes because they are unable to find our address signs. 

You may look with pride to your creative and unique address sign. But, look again. . . Has it faded to the point of illegibility? Is it reflective? Can it be read from both directions? 

Did you know that there is actually a CRD Bylaw (4078) that requires all homeowners to have legible, multi-directional, reflective address signs (https://www.crd.bc.ca/docs/default-source/building-inspection-pdf/CRDBylaw4078), even carrying a $100 fine for each day the address sign is missing after the citation?

While it is unlikely that Salt Springers without legible address signs will soon be cited, doesn’t it make sense to help our firefighters – as well as ambulances, RCMP, and even package deliverers – find us when we need them? And, these signs are available from our Fire Department for only $60. Interested? Contactadmin@saltspringfire.com to order your sign.    

While proper address signs and FireSmarting our properties are relatively simple and inexpensive ways of protecting ourselves, more expensive initiatives also make a difference: When it is time to replace your roof, seriously consider foregoing the charm of a shake roof and, instead, selecting a fire-resistant roofing material. Some years ago, some Australian firefighters visited, wondering why “Salt Springers used kindling on their roofs.” While Jamie and Warren did not go as far as suggesting we replace our lovely cedar siding,they did suggest taking a critical look at it: Siding with holes for embers to embed is far more dangerous than smooth, undamaged siding. 

And among those even larger projects to protect our selves from fires is the health of our forests. While our less flammable, often moist, forests help protect us from the wildfires raging in the Interior, TSS – Transition Salt Spring (https://transitionsaltspring.com/) volunteers are keenly aware of the dangers of assuming that doing nothing is enough to protect our forests. Reminding us that First Nations practiced active forest stewardship, a TSS project, the Climate Adaptation Research Lab (https://transitionsaltspring.com/mt-maxwell/) is working hard to return our forests to their former health and resilience.

A participant asked what happens when a neighbour creates a fire hazard that threatens our home? Can firefighters help? Yes and no. . . .Our firefighters can identify hazards when invited to do so, they can teach, they can advise (even occasionally warning of the potential legal costs of negligence). . .and they can fight fires as needed. But, their powers are suggestive rather than prescriptive. Even in cases of clearly illegal actions, our firefighters would need to involve the Provincial Fire Commissioner to force action. 

But, our firefighters can visit our homes, encourage neighbours, and actively engage our POD program (https://saltspringexchange.com/2019/01/01/get-in-involved-with-emergency-response-join-the-pod-program-in-action/)to, one step at a time, be smart about protecting our homes. And, they are doing exactly that. . . . 

A participant asked how we should best get information in a disaster? Our Emergency Program (https://www.crd.bc.ca/docs/default-source/fire-and-emergency-programs/20315-crd-emergency-guide_saltspring_online_25_final.pdf) is our best source of information. This disaster-related information will also be shared with our new radio station, CHiR.fm as well as helpful applications like Alertable (https://www.crd.bc.ca/service/fire-and-emergency-programs/public-alert-notification-system). 

When one participant asked where our firefighters get the water they need we learned that our Fire Rescue District has identified waster sources throughout Salt Spring, including ponds, lakes, authorized hydrants, and even salt water access points. These water sources are identified on a map: https://www.saltspringfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Superior_Tanker_Shuttle_Service_Accreditation_Area2.pdf). Another dependable source of water, offering you the potential of saving a significant amount on your home insurance bill, is our tanker shuttle system with the ability to pump 250 gallons per minute for up to three hours. With the accreditation of this tanker system, many homeowners can get a significant reduction on their insurance bill. Take this accreditation (https://saltspringfire.com/superior-tanker-shuttle/) to your insurance company. You may be very pleased with the savings! 

As our time together was coming to a close, Jamie gave us an update on the progress of our new firehall. While it may appear to some observers to have taken a great deal of time for visible progress on this long-awaited building, all the permits (except a few road-related ones) have been awarded, the foundation is complete, concrete poured, and beams are imminent. Hopeful that progress will continue as expected, Jamie predicts on time completion, with a move-in date spring of 2026, if not before. And, that the project remains on budget at $13.2 million with a loan of $9.7 million. 

With that good news, we bid an appreciative farewell to our guests; heads swirling with all the great information; eager to take a FireSmart look at our own property; and appreciative of the hard work, enthusiasm, commitment of our guests, Jamie and Warren, representing our strong firefighting team. (Thank-you Jamie and Warren!)   

Want to learn more? Jamie was interviewed by CHiR.fm‘s Damian Inwood after our ASK Salt Spring gathering. Listen to this interview as well as many more at ASK Salt Spring Answered (https://open.spotify.com/show/14aIItcouBw3unc5ZtgPDL).  

Just in case you are interested. . . .This report has been written by Gayle Baker, founder of ASK Salt Spring, currently also a Salt Spring Local Community Commissioner. This report has also been reviewed by this week’s special guests, Jamie and Warren. 

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