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OPINION: Fire Prevention Week

There are certainly lots of lessons to be learned from the last two devastating fire seasons.
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Fire Prevention Week is promoted by fire departments across Canada and the United States to raise public awareness about the immediate dangers of fire and how to keep your family safe by having an escape plan.

It is also a great opportunity to thank the firefighters, volunteers and all first responders who keep us safe.

For people of the Cariboo and elsewhere in British Columbia where record wildfires have disrupted lives and destroyed property over the past two summers, fire prevention has risen to a whole new level.

There are certainly lots of lessons to be learned from the last two devastating fire seasons. Government has to be the first one to wake up and listen to the people most affected.

RELATED: OPINION: Thanks to all those involved with firefighting efforts

This year was much different than what happened in our region in 2017 when we were fighting highly concentrated and much larger wildfires. This summer was marked by smaller fires spread throughout the province, and we were ill prepared to have firefighting resources spread so thin.

Certainly, the people fighting fires on the front lines deserve our utmost respect and our gratitude. But they also deserve to know that someone in top management finally realizes that we have to change how we fight fires in British Columbia.

We also have to get better at fire prevention, so I hope this week people around the cabinet table in Victoria are using time during the off-season to make sure our province is better prepared than last year.

We need an economic recovery plan too that applies not only to wildfires but floods as well. There are some great social service agencies out there but none of them specializes in economic recovery.

To make sure government is listening, I along with my fellow MLAs in fire and flood-affected regions will be publishing our own report in the near future. We want to ensure the premier and key cabinet ministers make flood and fire prevention a top priority.


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