B.C. to get wildfire training and education centre in response to expert task force
British Columbia's premier says a training and education centre for wildfire fighters will be established in response to recommendations by a task force that looked into last year's catastrophic wildfires.
David Eby says the centre at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops will be the first of its kind in North America, offering everything from basic wildfire training to post-doctoral research.
He says the design of the program will start this year with plans to launch in 2025.
Eby says the expert task force on emergencies launched last fall has made 31 recommendations, which include increasing the use of new technology such as artificial intelligence to predict fire behaviour.
Other suggestions include expanding wildfire training and prevention programs, improving response co-ordination with local and municipal fire departments and providing more timely, accessible information about evacuations and alerts to residents.
Eby says the costs of implementing the recommendations or establishing the new training centre haven't been determined.
“Following last summer's forest fire season, there was broad agreement across government that it was time for us to take a look at what had happened and examine how we could do things better,” Eby told a news conference Thursday.
Canada's 2023 wildfire season is considered the most destructive ever recorded, with the Interagency Forest Fire Centre reporting 18.5 million hectares of land was burned.
Eby says the scale of destruction was “profoundly concerning” and showed the need to ensure the province kept up with demands on both the Wildfire Service and communities impacted by wildfires.
“Establishing this centre will ensure that we have the people with the skills that we need to respond to this continuing and evolving threat in British Columbia,” he says.
The BC Wildfire Service said in March that forecasters were worried about the potential of another difficult fire season this year, with drought conditions at the end of 2023 reported across much of the province.
The service's wildfire dashboard shows 107 active wildfires in the province as of Thursday, with two new blazes in the previous 24 hours. It shows there are 90 active holdover fires from the 2023 season that smouldered beneath the winter snow cover, but all are currently considered under control.
A report released by University of Maryland researchers on Thursday says Canadian wildfires were “entirely” to blame for a 24 per cent surge in tree losses worldwide last year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 4, 2024.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Ont. woman who faked pregnancy to defraud doulas arrested again on similar charges
Victims of a Brantford, Ont., woman who was sentenced to house arrest earlier this year for defrauding and deceiving doulas say they’re not surprised she’s been apprehended again on similar charges.
Eating disorders among youth skyrocketed during pandemic and so did associated costs, report finds
The number of young people experiencing eating disorders surged during the height of the pandemic as the social and economic costs skyrocketed too, a new pan-Canadian report has found.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.