Salmon Arm residents wanting to know what they can do, and what the city is doing, to reduce risks associated with the spread of wildfires are invited to attend an upcoming town hall meeting.
The city and the Salmon Arm Fire Department are organizing a Wildfire Mitigation Town Hall Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, March 27. The meeting will be an opportunity to learn about wildfire mitigation efforts that have been, or are being taken by the city, residents and local industry, and what steps people can take to protect their own properties.
“Obviously, we’ve seen major catastrophic wildfires and they’re becoming more and more frequent,” said Salmon Arm Fire Department fire prevention specialist Carmen Guidos. “By hosting this type of a meeting, we can tell the public what our plans are, what we as a city are working towards protecting our community, as well as how the public and homeowners and business owners themselves can help out from their end.”
Guidos said the meeting will include presentations by representatives of one of the city’s FireSmart neighbourhoods, and from Interfor about what they did to help protect their Adams Lake mill and their timber during last summer’s Bush Creek East wildfire.
“What a big company does on their property on their business, that can also be scaled down to a local level,” said Guidos.
Information about ongoing FireSmart initiatives will be shared, including mitigation projects at Little Mountain and Park Hill, both part of the city’s Community Wildfire Prevention Plan.
The meeting will also be an opportunity for residents to learn steps they can take to FireSmart their properties.
“As part of my day job, I preach fire prevention… and people don’t realize… the damage from wildfire can often be mitigated or lessened with a lot of simple steps at home…,” said Guidos. “It’s simple things like getting your combustible patio furniture inside or that corn broom that you use to sweep the porch that’s laying outside the house – get those in when there’s a wildfire imminent, so that they don’t catch fire and burn your house down. People don’t realize a lot of those little essentially free things that they can do can have a huge impact on whether their home is protected or not protected.”
Being a town hall meeting, attending members of the public will be able to ask questions and provide feedback.
“An important part of community is community involvement… ,” said Guidos, “and the more we can educate and inform our residents the better everyone is.”
The Wildfire Mitigation Town Hall Meeting is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. in council chambers at city hall. Those who cannot attend in person may do so online at https://meet.goto.com/918514709. The access code is: 918-514-709.
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