Forest Fires

[caribooblades]

We've lived in the bush in central BC for 21 years, have been through forest fire season's before but not like this one... We've been under an evacuation order for almost 2 months. Our place is a cabin with a few solar panels and of course a shop that runs on solar power. We didn't leave, exercised our right to protect our land. We have been lucky and smart. If we leave armed soldiers and police won't let us back in. A Different kind of survival in the wilderness.

The fire storm the media has whipped up was fed to them. It's disgraceful. Great thing about a satellite connection. Anyone with a panel in the bush. The big difference this time is the fire center and CRD have been withholding information and have been putting a big spin on the fires. Fires in old cut blocks crawl they don't rage. A lot of the Cariboo has been cut in the last 50 years.

It's a sign towards the future. We can deal with forest fires. The RCMP, Military, CRD and levels of governments are a different story. We do appreciate the different authorities and governments for sure but this kind of situation will have to be talked about and checked. It has turned into a military exercise and an opportunity to burn. It is a phenomenon. Democratic armed forces need conflict to flourish. The CRD needs to burn off land. Problem is it's at our (the people's) expense. I wish they could just say the truth. Logging practices have sucked for a long time and the pine beetle have left lots of fuel in a bush and with the pressures of climate change. They could get us all motivated instead of being arrogant and taking our rights away.

Right now we're getting caught up. The order and blockades came into effect here without notice so a lot got put on hold.

 

[John A. Larsen]

I life an hour south of Seattle and a week or so ago our air quality was rated worse than in Beijing, a result of the smoke drifting down from the fires in BC. Hope you all make it thru this season and that the rains come back soon. John

 

[Herlock]

Hi. I feel for you, hope you get through this with no damages and consequences. Here the forest fires are a plague and every year the number of hectares of woods and Mediterranean scrub devoured by fires increase. This year almost 75,000 hectares (and counting) have been burnt down already.

The thing I really get mad about is that the natural causes that can trigger a forest fire are extremely rare. The presence of a large amount of fuel (vegetation) and oxidant (air), is not enough to cause fire itself. What is missing in a forest is the heat needed for a chemical chain reaction. These fires, besides the very few cases connected to irresponsibility or distraction (e.g. camp fires not properly extinguished, cigarettes butts casually thrown away while still burning, cars/trucks with incandescent exhaust pipes parked on dry grass and brushwood, etc.), are almost all the times arsons.

To some extent, here they find a reason in the old agricultural practice that considers fire a way to get new pasture land or, in the case of growers, to regenerate the fertility of the soil. These “controlled fires” are normally today heavily regulated and forbidden by laws in summer time but legislations are poorly enforced and fires sometimes get out of hand. In the rest of the cases, arsons are almost always linked to speculative building-related interests and other mafia business, but not only: recent Police investigations discovered that here, in some Regions, forest fires creates or confirms the recruitment of temporary/seasonal “forest workers”. It is unfortunately not so rare that those supposedly in charge to prevent or extinguish forest fires have been instead charged as the ones causing these!

Local politicians have always seen in these temporary/seasonal “forest workers” a precious basin from which to draw electoral votes: to secure their votes in the elections, they usually offer them seasonal employment contracts. Almost always, these contracts are concluded shortly before an election campaign. To get the jobs, they need the fires! And we’re not talking of a handful of votes in our Southern Regions. To give some numbers: only in Calabria Region, there are about 10,500 “forest workers” (land conservation workers, as they are officially called) for an area of 6,500 square kilometres. A disproportionate number, where, for example in Canada, one of the model nations when it comes to forest management, to manage and take care of a forest extension of over 400,000 square kilometres, the Rangers headcount is around 4,200 units. To put this in proportion, in Calabria Region, they have 1 “Ranger” every 191 inhabitant! Sicily Region alone owns the largest share of forest workers (full time or part time/seasonally employed) with more than 30,000 employees out of the 68,000 of the national total! We have some homework to do and I really hope we get a drastic change and not only about this.

When it comes to leave our houses during natural or manmade disasters, I know it can be tough but I’d rather follow the given instructions for my own and my family safety. Firemen, Police, Army, National Civil Protection Service, volunteers, etc. here really work to help the Citizens in critical and desperate situations like these. I don’t think they have an own agenda in this. I see this happening now for the earthquakes and I have witnessed this first-hand on both sides, during a couple of major floods we had in my Region (Lombardy) several years ago, when together with my parents and sister we had to temporarily leave the summer house in the mountains and a few years later, when I found myself in a rescue team (as a trooper during my military service) busy with shovelling mud from damaged private houses and trying to comfort People in despair. I trust these guys and not a few of them I can call “casual everyday heroes”.

Good luck.

 

[mete]

Here during the Big Flood 1955 we were asked "where did you go during the flood "? Go? "Yes the area was evacuated " No one told us !! It has improved but now another problem .More often now is the Federal Gov't wanting to run the show. But it's not very efficient when from Wash DC they make hard and fast rules about of local conditions.
In an emergency things can't always be predicted so you need to be flexible which Gov't regs don't permit !

 

[Alan2442]

Scott,
My family send our thoughts and prayers to you and Aki.

Hope all is well on your end.

 

[skyhorse]

Smoke and Prayers sent high ! Lol, on second thought maybe just the prayers in this case . I just got home from a six month stay at a V.A. hospital in Northern Ca. and the smoke from the forest fires there could be seen in the air over a hundred miles away. Stay safe my friend.

 

[highestpoint]

This was a picture of the Sun around 1600. It was like this for several days. Picture was from about an hour north of Seattle and about two hours south of Vancouver. Prayers go out to you and everyone around. Hopefully it's subsided by now.

 

[SW-EDC]

Stay safe my friend