Is smoke and flame the new normal? After days of wildfires ravaging the B.C. Interior – and no end in sight – it’s starting to feel like it.
At press time, around 14,000 people had been evacuated from their homes, pushed out by more than 200 wildfires currently scorching parts of the province.
And a growing chorus of experts are suggesting that wildfire summers may be here to stay.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Who among us remembers the summers here ever being this, well, hot? Add rapid winds, dry lands and perhaps an ill-timed spark from a campfire, and you have a recipe for disaster.
But how we face the reality and chaos caused by wildfires is largely up to us.
So far, we feel encouraged by what we’re seeing.
The cities of Prince George, Kelowna and Kamloops are opening their doors to people displaced by wildfire.
And even after a tense election, outgoing and incoming premiers Christy Clark and John Horgan have been breaking bread in an effort to do what’s right.
It’s easy to feel inoculated from wildfires on the North Shore. It’s too urban here, we might say. Surely, we’re too close to the ocean for anything to happen, right?
North Shore municipalities and emergency crews are right to not sound alarm bells yet, but we should act responsibly in the meantime. Call out those who might gingerly flick away a cigarette butt, disobey the fire ban, or leave dry debris unattended in soaring temperatures.
We owe it to our fellow British Columbians to take all this seriously.
They certainly are.
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