The Regional FireSmart Program is back for another year.
This is the fifth consecutive year that the qathet Regional District (qRD) has brought the program to the region.
Thanks to funding support, the qRD is able to continue to offer education, training, and planning with the goal of mitigating wildfires in our community.
Funding from the province and Union of BC Municipalities’ Community Resiliency Investment Fund is making the program possible.
Last year’s program delivered 65 property assessments at the owners’ requests, issued over $14,000 in FireSmart rebates to date, and delivered interagency training and Structure Protection Unit Training at seven fire halls throughout the region.
https://youtu.be/tLHFPpdXaBY
These sessions focused on how to operate effectively in challenging wildland urban fire scenarios.
This year’s program will see the same initiatives as past years with the hope that the number of people using the program continues to increase.
“The FireSmart program saw great success in 2020”, said the district’s Manager of Emergency Services, Ryan Thoms.
“We saw residents spending more time at home, making FireSmart improvements to their properties and we were able to assist them in doing that.”
Property owners are encouraged to request a free FireSmart assessment for their property and may be eligible for a rebate of up to $500 for any FireSmart improvements made.
The district says people living in forested areas “need to be aware of the threat of wildfire, and actions they can take to make their properties FireSmart.”
Anyone interested in information on how to make FireSmart improvements to their properties is asked to contact the qRD office or
Regional FireSmart Coordinator Marc Albert directly at [email protected].
You can find more information here.
