With spring coming, encouraging residents to FireSmart their homes and properties as they plan their spring cleanup projects was a priority at the City of Quesnel’s Forestry Innovation Centre open house.
At the open house, held Saturday, Feb. 29, representatives from the City’s Forestry Initiatives Program, the B.C. Wildfire Service and the United Way Fire Mitigation Project were available to provide information about reducing your risk during wildfire season.
The City’s Forestry Initiatives Program has new FireSmart information banners, which will be displayed during the PeeWee provincials and the Central Interior Hockey League Coy Cup, at the Quesnel Library and at the Quesnel Arts and Recreation Centre in the coming months.
The City will also have a booth with FireSmart information at the Quesnel Home and Outdoor Adventure Show April 18-19 and is planning another Forestry Innovation Centre open house at the end of April. The City is also working on organizing a Wildfire Preparedness Day for a date to be determined in May.
FireSmart B.C. tips for homeowners include everything from moving firewood 10-30 metres from your home and cleaning your roof and gutters of leaves and pine needles to having a wildfire evacuation plan with your household and keeping grass cut to less than 10 centimetres.
The United Way Fire Mitigation Project helps seniors and people who face mobility or mental health barriers protect their homes through the FireSmart principles.
The program runs until the end of August, and supervisors Ray Jungaro and Gary Horley say they’ve been working pretty much all over the region so far.
Last month, they met with people who live around Troll Ski Resort, and Horley says they will start doing some pruning work there once the snow melts a bit. They are also going to present information about the program at a public meeting April 15 at the Sunset Theatre in Wells, which is being organized by the Wells-Barkerville Community Forest.
“We’re looking forward to that,” said Horley. “It’s pretty well promoted by their Community Forest. I think we’ll spend quite a bit of time east.”
Horley and Jungaro held a meeting in Alexandria last week, and they expect they’ll be doing quite a bit of work there too.
Through the United Way Fire Mitigation Project, a crew of four, led by a trained supervisor, will conduct fire mitigation assessments and activities on residential properties, following the guidelines set out by FireSmart Canada and B.C. Wildfire Service.
The crew will do a formal assessment of your property to identify areas where your home may be at risk, looking at everything from the materials used to build your home to the type of vegetation on your property. After the assessment, crew members will do some mitigation activities, such as moving woodpiles and relocating flammable materials to a safer distance, clearing dead organic waste from your property, clearing gutters and basic landscaping maintenance, such as pruning tress and shrubs of their dead limbs and removing tall grasses.
They will also provide recommendations and information on how to have other activities, such as tree removal and thinning or roof replacement, done.
This project is aimed at seniors and community members who face mobility and/or mental health barriers who have difficulty or are unable to complete the activities themselves. For those who meet the eligibility requirements, the service is free.
This winter, Jungaro and Horley and their crew have also been helping clear driveways for seniors who cannot do it on their own.
“We were glad we could do that,” said Horley.
The crew also recently helped a senior who had been badly hurt by chopping and stacking her firewood.
Jungaro and Horley will be taking part in Local FireSmart Representative training March 25-26, and after that, they will be included in the B.C. FireSmart website.
Jungaro and Horley will be presenting more information about the Fire Mitigation Project April 18-19 at the Quesnel Home and Outdoor Adventure Show.
For more information about the United Way Fire Mitigation Project, contact Ray Jungaro at 250-992-1508 or Garry Horley at 250-991-6143 or email either of them at quesnel@unitedwaytnc.ca.
For more information about FireSmart, visit firesmartbc.ca.
READ MORE: Quesnel’s United Way Fire Mitigation Project has been a success so far