Salmon Arm Deputy Fire Chief Carmen Guidos was called in by council to help extinguish concern wildfire fuel mitigation work done at the Park Hill trail system has exacerbated the fire risk. On the agenda for city council’s May 10 meeting was a letter from resident Stig Keskinen regarding the timing of the city’s ongoing wildfire fuel mitigation program that saw work done along the Park Hill trails in May and June. In the letter, Keskinen posits this is not the time of year to do such work. One reason for this are the resulting “dozens of piles” of forest debris now drying throughout the trail system. …Keskinen wanted to know when they would be dealt with ….Guidos confirmed that is the plan, to burn in the fall – similar to what was done with the wildfire mitigation work at Little Mountain.

Mike Flannigan

…Global experts are calling extreme fire weather our “new normal”. But as fire scientist Mike Flannigan looks at B.C.’s wildfires of the past, he rejects the term. “We’re moving into uncharted territory. This is our new reality. Some people might say ‘normal,’ but to me, normal sounds like a plateau. We’re on a trajectory, and it’s downward.” Flannigan is a professor of wildland fire at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops whose expertise has earned him the BC Innovation Research Chair in predictive services, emergency management and fire Science. He’s been studying fire for decades. He recently spoke to The Narwhal from Kamloops and shared some data that showed a dramatic increase in area burned across the province in the last 10 years compared to the previous six decades. We asked him to break down what this all means for the future of wildfires in B.C. and the country.

Thousands of pounds of fruit are going to waste in Summerland as farms on the frontlines of a firefight sit empty just as the window for harvest opens, offering a devastating blow in what has already been a difficult year. Adrian Arts, executive director of the BC Fruit Growers’ Association, said that growers have been hit by heat, drought and now wildfire this year alone. Peaches that were to be harvested last week will likely rot on the tree and the remaining fruits that aren’t quite ready for harvest will likely be ruined by ash, Arts said. “I’m guessing a lot of that crop is going to be abandoned along with the peaches, plums, and other fruit ripening this week,” he said. Arts said the repeated crises are exposing weaknesses in existing government support programs that are no longer meeting their needs.

Smoke continues to linger over much of Southern B.C. Sunday. Environment Canada’s air quality warnings remain in place for a large portion of the region, including the Thompson-Okanagan. While most of the area is under a “yellow” warning, the South Okanagan and Fraser Canyon regions are under the more severe “orange” warning. Multiple wildfires are actively burning in and around B.C.’s Southern Interior and putting up plenty of smoke, including the Bald Range fire in Summerland and the Ainslie Creek fire in the Fraser Canyon, along with several fires south of the border. Environment Canada warns that the elderly and very young, people with lung or heart conditions, and people who are pregnant should reduce their time spent outdoors during smoky conditions. No air quality warnings are in place for the Metro Vancouver area or the East Kootenays. Smoky conditions are forecast to persist through Monday.