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Rossland and wildfire preparedness

Contributor
By Contributor
August 4th, 2017

A message from the City of Rossland:

As of today, there are approximately 140 wildfires burning across the province of BC. In the Southeast Fire Centre, there are approximately 20 total wildfires burning  with 4 of them being fires of note (the closest to the City of Rossland is the Harrop Creek Fire, NE of Nelson).

Further  information on all provincial wildfires can be found on the BC Wildfire Services webpage at:

http://bcfireinfo.for.gov.bc.ca/hprScripts/WildfireNews/OneFire.asp      

In 2016, the City of Rossland re-entered the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary’s (RDKB) Emergency Preparedness Service. This service provides a Regional Emergency Operations Program for the entire RDKB and draw upon a number of regional resources and staff within the RDKB and its member municipalities (including Rossland). Currently, the RDKB has activated an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) Level 1 to monitor and pre-plan for possible future activities, while the Province has an active EOC Level 2 in the Southeast Provincial Regional Emergency  Operations Centre to help deal with the fires of note within the rest of the Southeast Fire Centre.

At this time, there are no fires of note, evacuation orders, alerts or local states of emergency within the RDKB. If that should change, it is most likely that the RDKB would be the lead agency and work with all communities involved in and/or threatened by interface wildfires and would co-ordinate any future efforts or activities required (i.e., overseeing any evacuations that may be required, providing essential social services where required, liaising with the province where required). Further information on the RDKB’s Regional Emergency Management Program can be found by accessing the following link:

https://www.rdkb.com/Services/RDKBProtectiveServices.aspx        

Although the City of Rossland has recently issued information regarding current water use restrictions, both of the City’s untreated water reservoirs (Ophir Creek and Star Gulch) are at near capacity and will be available for use when and where required to help deal with any future interface wildland firefighting efforts near and/or approaching the City of Rossland.

Additionally, City Staff are in constant communication with the SEA PREOC and the RDKB EOC.

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact City Hall.

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