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Fort McMurray evacuation surpasses 2003 Okanagan fire

Wildfires rage on in Fort McMurray, Alta., but the situation isn’t too foreign for people living in the Okanagan.

In 2003, the Okanagan Mountain Park fire covered more than 25,000 hectares of land south and east of the city. Around 30,000 people were evacuated, and in the end, 239 homes on the southern edges of the city were destroyed.

In a recent fire update from Fort McMurray, officials have confirmed that 1,600 structures have been damaged or the destroyed, the majority being residences.

To date, 88,000 people have fled the municipality after a mandatory evacuation was called on Tuesday night. This far surpasses the Kelowna evacuation, posing even more problems for the community.

“In our region, when we face interface fires, we work together with all the communities and we open up our emergency operation centre and handle the logistics and the management of resources to deal with a situation like this,” said Travis Whiting, Deputy Fire Chief with Central Okanagan Emergency Operations. “Fort McMurray, I’m sure they’re operating under the same manner, the same model, where they have an emergency operation centre bringing together all the responding agencies to look at how best to manage the event and provide for residents.”

“Public safety is certainly going to be their number one concern, and responder safety.”

Whiting said responders have to look at the logistics both of managing the fire and dealing with evacuating an entire community, and all the challenges that come with it.

<who> Photo Credit: Geeven Chetty/Facebook. </who> Damage to one area of Fort McMurray has exceeded 80 per cent.

So far in Fort McMurray, people have faced a variety of issues.

“Things ranging from people running out of fuel on the side of the road, to the challenges of moving healthcare facilities and entire complexes of people,” continued Whiting. “…and trying to find a place for them to go, and to track them, and to ensure that everyone has moved, and moved out safely.

Whiting said they advise Okanagan residents to follow three important steps: make a plan, know the risks and get a kit.

“We encourage everybody to prepare for emergencies such as the upcoming fire season to understand the risks that they face within their community, to make a plan on if they had to evacuate and to have a kit ready to go, both in their home and in their vehicle,” said Whiting.

<who> Photo Credit: City of Kelowna. </who> The Okanagan Mountain Park fire of 2003.

In your emergency kit, you should include essential supplies, like food, water, clothing, as well as extra considerations such as medications, contact info for family members, supplies for pets and family pictures.

“It’s not an expensive undertaking,” said Whiting. “It’s more about being organized and ready to go.”

Having gone through the long process of overcoming a devastating fire, residents of the Okanagan aren’t far removed from people who have had to leave Fort McMurray.

“The recovery for a community, especially like what we’re seeing in Fort McMurray, and you can see the impact here in our region, it’s not a matter of a short period of time, it’s years—decades—of recovery,” said Whiting. “There are financial impacts, there are emotional impacts.

“People have lost their homes, they’ve lost things that were important to them, things that were dear to them, and that recovery will take a long time.”

<who> Photo Credit: Wiki Commons. </who> Damage after the Okanagan Mountain Park fire.

Whiting said great changes have come out of the 2003 fire, with Quail Gate, another neighbourhood at risk for fires, undertaking Fire Smart as a community.

He said it is also night to see the dedicated emergency social service volunteers who help out displaced residents every year.

“You see a lot of positive energy come forward in that rebuild, but it’s a devastating event and it will take them many years to recover from this,” said Whiting. “Hopefully they’re able to pull together as a community and find that support.”

Fire season hasn’t started in the Okanagan yet, but Whiting said fires like the one in 2003, and the one Fort McMurray is facing, are unique and relatively uncommon. Despite this, part of our region does experience interface fires every year. Whiting said he encourages everyone to follow Fire Smart principles, to discuss preparedness with their neighbours and to volunteer when help is needed.



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