Re: “We should be thankful for forest-fire crews,” letter, Oct. 9.
It is apparent the letter-writer misread Nick Raeside’s commentary “Wildfire risks are increasing in B.C.’s forests.” The article did not suggest just anybody could become a professional forest firefighter. Raeside did suggest that many homeowners in forested areas could be organized to help protect their own property.
Having spent a good part of my life involved in forest-fire control with the B.C. Forest Service, I can certainly attest to the fact that local people can be a great asset in fighting and controlling forest fires. We should make an effort, as Raeside suggests, to organize local people to help protect their own property.
The last paragraph in his article suggests looking at the numbers when comparing 2017 to 1958. I went further than that and looked at the numbers over many years in the past.
His number of 1,302 fire starts for 2017 makes this year one of the lighter years for fire starts. Many years had more than 2,000 fire starts and several had more than 3,000 starts, but all with much lower damage figures.
A quick comparison looks like this: 2017 — 1,302 fires — area burned 12,128 square kilometres; 2003 — 2,472 fires — area burned 2,647 sq. km; 2006 — 2,570 fires — area burned 1,392 sq. km; 2009 — 3,064 fires — area burned 2,474 sq. km.
Raeside does make you ask the big question: Why?
Jack Carradice
Chilliwack
