Those most affected by wildfires – rural, northern and isolated Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities – are usually last in line for fire mitigation funding. This is a serious social-justice issue
The wildfire story begins with images of towering flames and evacuees, satellite photos of drifting smoke, followed by the sight of charred trees and homes reduced to rubble. But that’s typically where the story ends.
In B.C., there is also inequity in how the threat of wildfire is mitigated. The favoured delivery model for wildfire mitigation in the province is FireSmart. Public education, changing local bylaws, conducting home and property risk assessments and small-scale vegetation management are all key aspects of the program. Grants to local governments for risk reduction are now steeped in FireSmart. The inequity comes from who gets the most funding and how that is prioritized.
FireSmart’s success depends on large numbers of homeowners investing in fire hardening – clearing vegetation from around a house, and cladding it in fire-resistant materials such as stucco and steel. Homeowners have to be willing to invest and, more importantly, be able to invest. But it costs money to fire-harden your home and property and maintain it. Many rural homeowners are older and on fixed incomes – investing tens of thousands of dollars is just not feasible.
We have to change our approach to fire management – from an emphasis on response and recovery to one of. B.C. needs to follow the Sendai Framework principles and tackle fire risk reduction at the scale of large landscapes: Start with communities, but then move out to watersheds and the larger landscape.
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