Anglemont firefighters have been busy working with the province on proactive measures to protect their community from wildfire.
The forests ministry has been working with the North Shuswap fire department on a wildfire mitigation project over an approximately 100-hectare area by Anglemont.
“The Ministry of Forests is currently undergiong doing a whole lot of wildfire fuel mitigation work around the province and specifically for our area,” said Columbia Shuswap Regional District Deputy Regional Fire Chief Sean Coubrough, explaining the the ministry reached out for some assistance from the Anglemont Fire Department with a local mitigation project that has involved the burning of brush and ladder fuels.
“It’s pretty interesting to see,” said Coubrough. “It doesn’t really involve any tree removal so it ends up looking like a thriving, healthy forest… What you’ll notice when you go through it is those ladder fuels, the thin branches at the low levels… that’s all been removed up to a height of about 5-6 feet and so if a smaller fire is going through there it won’t catch on to those ladder fuels and transfer through the canopy.
Coubrough said the goal is to reduce the available fuel load. Should a wildfire occur, this will help to reduce the heat it releases, “lessening the likelihood of extreme fire behaviour.”
The fire department has been communicating with the community via social media about what’s going on, assuring fires resulting from the related fuel-reduction burns are under control.