FireSmart receives trailers and new equipment for community wildfire protection
The District of Hope FireSmart crew will soon be moving into the second phase of a long-term project to improve wildfire safety.
The first phase of the structure protection unit project is complete and Hope firefighters now have trailers full of new equipment, including sprinklers, pumping hoses and water bladders, to protect homes and infrastructure within the community.
“One of the recommendations from the (community resiliency plan) was to bring in a structure protection unit,” said David Hick, Hope FireSmart coordinator. “It’s basically a trailer full of pumps and specialized equipment that we use if we have a wildfire in the area.”
He said the set-up will be used as a defence for homes that are in the path of a wildfire.
“It’s a pretty integral part of wildfire defence for us,” he said. “And we’re really happy to get it launched.”
The project, which has already received funding to complete phase two in 2026, is part of the community resiliency plan that the District of Hope adopted last year. Phase two will expand the program’s wildfire protection capabilities and firefighters are already training with the new equipment to ensure that they can use it during wildfire deployment.
Phase three will add specialized fittings, and additional water delivery capabilities, to improve the speed of deployment.
Hick said that, by the time phase four is complete, the program will have enough equipment to protect at least 35 individual properties. It will also be able to support mutual aid partners such as Yale, Popkum, and communities, like Chawathil First Nation, who have fire service agreements with Hope.
The project is being funded by the province’s Community Resiliency Investment program (CRI). The funding came from CRI’s FireSmart grant stream which was administered by the Union of British Columbia Municipalities.
Hick said it’s been wonderful to see the community embracing the program. Specifically, he said it’s been encouraging to see people supporting the program’s principles and the actions taken to mitigate wildfires.
“The project is one piece of the FireSmart program here in town,” Hick said. “It’s one of a number of pillars that we’ve been working on, and we’ve had a really great year. We’ve also done a lot of work on our critical infrastructure mitigation. And we delivered just over $4,000 in rebates for people that have done mitigation work on their property this year.
“It’s just really encouraging to see the community get behind the program, and sort of understand that it’s all of us, that there’s room for all of us to do work in FireSmart to keep our community safe.”
To learn more about Hope FireSmart visit http://www.hope.ca/p/firesmart.
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