Editor:
With some reluctance, I am once again replying to the most current letter regarding my Jan. 18 letter. This will be my last response.
As an emergency manager, I am actually pleased and encouraged by the concerns expressed about evacuating the south side of the bridge. Any time the community brings awareness and discussion to one of the risks the community faces is positive in my books. The risk of a wildfire is not a new threat to our town. In 2003, after the Kelowna and Highway 93 S wildfire that had the potential to make its way to Banff, the Town started to work on wildfire preparedness, mitigation, and response. A few years later, it started enhancing overall emergency management with both initiatives continually being worked on to this day.
Emergency preparedness is everyone’s responsibility. Residents should be informed and registered to emergency notification systems, be prepared personally and as a family and when it comes to wildfires, conduct mitigation work on their property. Industry also has a role in the municipality coordinating and leading the entire program. Evacuation guides were hand-delivered to every residential dwelling unit a few years ago and the south side of the bridge received a second during the 2019 functional wildfire exercise.
The point I am trying to make is, the Town and Parks Canada has taken the risk of wildfires seriously for a long time and worked diligently to mitigate where they could as well as being prepared to manage any major emergency. The reality we need to face is we will never be able to completely mitigate all the risk of wildfire to our community.
I can appreciate it is easy to latch on to a sensational headline about some of the wildfires that affected Canada and places around the world the past two summers and come to a quick conclusion without looking deeper into all the details. We need to be realistic and ensure we are being accurate on all the details so that we can learn from them and not overreact.
Let’s use some of Mr. Semenok’s fire examples and correct his statement in the Feb. 1 Outlook that the ped zone doesn’t have a viable traffic lane as it does. Fort McMurray: The fire started on May 1 and impinged the community on May 3 and despite the last-minute evacuation call, all 88,000 residents were evacuated safely.
Kelowna: The McDougall Creek wildfire was spotted Aug. 15 with homes being impinged late evening Aug. 17 with all residents evacuated safely.
Yellowknife: I was deployed to that wildfire to assist the community and can confirm approximately 20,000 residents were evacuated safely and the fire was stopped 10 kilometres from the city. The tragic Lahaina fire faced a lack of resources, no mass notification or evacuation orders, close to 30 Celsius temperature and 130 km/h winds and several other variables that make it very difficult to compare other than to learn from the tragedy.
These examples do show the necessity to react quickly and effectively. The Town is the only municipality in Alberta that has detailed written pre-plans with the wildfire authority (Parks Canada) that will allow us to act in a coordinated, efficient, and effective manner when it comes to a wildfire approaching our town.
Residents of Banff, we have the choice to take this renewed concern and do something constructive with it. Be informed, be prepared and trust that the Town and its agency partners will react quickly and effectively.
Silvio Adamo,
Banff
