Open Letter to MLA and MP
Hello Mr. Kyllo and Mr. Arnold,
I am a resident of the Sorrento area and am appealing to you as my MLA to see that changes are made to improve the Fire and Safety situation in your riding. As an MLA I believe you can make a difference and bring about change for the good.
I don’t understand why the protocols of firefighting has gone from attacking a fire fast and hard, when it’s small requiring very little manpower to extinguish, instead of allowing it to get to a “fire of concern” before serious action is taken.
The “firefighting tools” used by BC firefighters are effective but they are not using all the best equipment currently available.
It is perplexing that BC with all its lakes and lake properties, has no compact “Fireboats” in our “toolbox”? (check out “Henrico County Fire Boat” on YouTube). These boats can be easily transported on trailers from lake to lake. Fireboats have zero water supply issues and are ideal for protecting waterfront structures. They can use water cannons or can pump water from the boat with hoses to firefighters on the shore. A brilliant and highly effective “tool”.
While helicopters are useful for structure protection, they are not the best for extinguishing larger areas. Why use helicopters that only carry 3,000 liters when you could have water bombers that carry 5 times that volume at 15,000 liters per pass? That is 5 times more effective. A highly effective “tool” available from BC’s Coulson Aviation located in Port Alberni is the water bomber pilots are equipped with “night vision goggles” Firefighting day and night, twice as effective.
Surely the BC firefighting budget could afford some highly effective “TOOLS” such as:
A compact Fireboat or two? (transportable to any lake in need)
Water bombers with night vision capabilities (15,000 liters per pass) (“Coulson Aviation”, located in Port Alberni)
California and Chili have deemed their wildfires important enough to hire “Coulson Aviation” (a BC company) to fly down and quickly put their fires out, yet we can’t!
A major issue we experienced is the lack of signage on detour routes. Highway #1 was closed (Sorrento to Chase) so in order to get to Hwy. 97 we had to use Yankee Flats Rd. This is a road we are not familiar with and the road signage is poor. Luckily it was during the day or we would have had major issues. Would it be too much to ask of the Highways Dept. to put up detour signs directing traffic to either Hwy. #1 or #97. Being lost on country roads when evacuating adds to the stress levels of drivers. This clearly shows a lack of emergency planning to not have evacuation routes clearly marked.
While I applaud the local efforts of Firefighters there is clearly a lack of manpower, resources and communication. Every commercial and public building in the Province requires an emergency fire plan to protect occupants but it would seem that the province lacks the vision to have one in place that adequately protects evacuation routes.
We are hopeful that you will be able to look into what has been a horrible experience for many local residents. We are also hopeful that changes can be made that will make future emergency situations less catastrophic.
Best regards, Kira Rittberg
