Fires along the Nanaimo Parkway by Northfield Rd. in July 2023 were deliberately lit in one of Nanaimo's more vulnerable areas for wildfire. (File photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Alex Rawnsley

fire risk

Nanaimo fire crews watching for wildfires throughout summer months

Jun 23, 2024 | 10:05 AM

NANAIMO — While nowhere near as vulnerable as areas of B.C.’s interior, mid-Island fire crews are still actively watching over some moderate-risk areas this summer.

Surveys of the city and surrounding area show a vast majority of the landscape at a low risk for widespread wildfire activity, with some notable pockets of moderate danger.

Deputy Fire Chief Geoff Whiting said those areas include parts of Protection Island, southern-facing parts of Linley Valley, the Northfield Bluffs and areas of drier grassland.

“We have a different climate, topography and vegetation than the Interior and the North. We often get a lot of questions at times when there are fires…people are concerned because they live on green space or there’s an unkept yard beside them.”

Presenting at a June 12 meeting of the City’s public safety committee, Whiting said Nanaimo’s situation is fairly standard for most communities in the Coastal Fire Centre, with vegetation more resistant to fire and more moisture available.

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He added Nanaimo’s network of accessible fire hydrants, along with mutual aid agreements with surrounding fire departments means a quick, effective response is possible in nearly every situation.

Answering a question on issues in Linley Valley, Whiting said it wasn’t an issue.

“We can get vehicles in there, there’s a main road that runs through the centre of Linley Valley and we can get an apparatus through part of that. We have a Wildland Unit which is essentially a heavy-duty pickup truck so it’s able to get into those areas much more effectively than our engines.”

Whiting said a series of deliberately lit fires along the Nanaimo Parkway in July 2023 was one of the larger responses from crews in recent memory, with flames fanned by hot, dry conditions in an area of town deemed to be a higher risk for wildfire.

He added the wildfire situation has actually improved a great deal over his career in the city, which dates back over 20 years.

Areas previously prone to fire have changed immensely.

“Many of the wildland areas of the City are being developed. We seem to have large fires back in the day when I started in the late 1990s, and a lot of the areas where every year we’d experience a large fire, those are now subdivisions.”

Whiting suggested increased awareness around basic Fire Smart principles, including the creation of tiered buffer zones around a home to eradicate or limit flammable items.

He said tinder-dry trees in close proximity to homes were a big factor behind devastating wildfires in Fort McMurray in 2016.

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