Vancouver Fire Chief Karen Fry identified Pacific Spirit Regional Park, Stanley Park and other forested areas in the city as potential spots for wildfires to ignite but assured council Wednesday that there is a low risk for such extreme events.
At the same time, Fry noted firefighters responded to a smouldering fire in Pacific Spirit park last summer that involved debris carried by the wind from a major blaze in August at a six-storey wood frame building under construction at 3477 West 41st Ave.
A sprinkler system had yet to be installed.
“[These types of fires] create their own weather, so they create their own windstorm,” Fry said of the Aug. 6 fire. “I know many people were talking about seeing bits and pieces of construction material blocks and blocks away.”
That blaze triggered nine additional structure fires and caused a tower crane to collapse in the neighbourhood between Dunbar and Blenheim streets, which is a short drive from Pacific Spirit park.
“This could have had the potential to be an even more of an extreme event,” the chief told council in a presentation on Vancouver’s wildfire risk. “It was a dry late summer day in August.”
Los Angeles, Lahaina, West Kelowna
The other challenge that day was firefighters were simultaneously battling an apartment blaze on the other side of the city at 414 East 10th Avenue. The workload meant Vancouver firefighters needed support of departments in Richmond and Burnaby.
With climate change a reality, Fry said longer, drier summers concern the fire department, which continues to train firefighters for wildfires and use fire modelling systems to ensure the department can launch an effective attack on a blaze — or prevent one.
In her presentation, Fry referred several times to the wildfires in Los Angeles County in January, noting how cities around the world — including Vancouver — are not immune to such unexpected and rapid devastation.
Fry said 24 people died in the fire in California, with thousands of homes and structures destroyed in what she described as a “fast-moving, wind-driven inferno.”
“Los Angeles, Lahaina, Jasper, Fort McMurray and West Kelowna are all recent examples of interface fires that have significantly impacted communities, cities and even major urban centres,” the chief said.
'25 per cent of the park within 12 hours'
Overall, the risk of wildfire in Vancouver is relatively low, said Fry, “except during periods of extreme drought, which we are seeing more of.” During the heat dome, firefighters were able to extinguish a fire that was climbing up a hill at Wreck Beach.
Response time to a fire, she said, is key.
“The wildfire modelling shows that if there was a delay in fire detection or response somewhere like in Stanley Park, under extreme fire conditions, a wind-driven fire has the potential to impact 25 per cent of the park within 12 hours,” the chief said.
The chief said she was grateful the park board took steps to clear trees destroyed by the hemlock looper moth in Stanley Park, noting the trees would have only increased the fuel load for a fire to spread rapidly in the park.
Fry said the fire department will continue to use public education as a method to prevent wildfires and encouraged homeowners living adjacent to a forested area to ensure they are prepared if such an event were to occur.
“People have to be able to self-sustain for 72 hours, people need to be able to go out if they see ash falling on their house,” she said. “They need to be able to have their garden hoses out ready to put out hot spots. They need to be watching.”
Enforcement of bans on open fires in Vancouver, no smoking in parks and no barbecues on beaches continue, the chief said, as do meetings with Vancouver Emergency Management Agency, Metro Vancouver, the BC Wildfire Service and other organizations to ensure a rapid response, in case of a wildfire.
X/@Howellings
