St’át’imc Runner

Page 4
Ucwalmícw
The St’át’imc Runner September 2009
Staying home
to keep an eye
on the fire?
Ambie Alexander’s house in
Seton came within 40 feet of an out
of control wildfire. Spot fires have
left charred reminders of how very
close that came all around his property.
The charcoal in the middle of
his front porch shows that it’s not
only flames that can burn a house
down, but the sparks and ashes flying
from them.
Through radioed information,
Ambie was able to return to his
house in time to save it. He had been
ferrying cargo and supplies from
N’Quátqua back to Seton and
Ts’al’álh when he got the call that a
new fire had broken out just a kilometer
from his home. He raced back
and set up sprinklers on fence posts,
and that is what prevented his house
from being burned.
Alexander has a small field
of shrubs and bushes, a nursery,
growing near his home. He sells
these to rehabilitation efforts. The
sprinkler and hose system that keeps
that nursery going is what saved his
house. He moved the sprinklers
between the house and the fire.
It was hot! The earth is
scorched right up to tens of meters
from his back door. The sprinklers
made it impossible for the ground
fire to travel right to the house.
His irrigation system was not
so lucky. Many lengths of pipe are
burned and cracked. The ditch has
been flooded with the falling fir and
pine needles from the burned trees,
and crossed by fire guards. His family
worked for days to reopen them,
and yet the shrub nursery, yellowed
at the fence edge by the heat of the
fire, does not have water.
The crew that stayed in
Seton to stave off the flames was
small: Phyllis Peters, keeping communications
alive; Howard Shields,
Bruce Shields, Garry John and
Ambie stayed back to make sure no
homes were lost. Thankfully, they
succeeded and no one was hurt.
The two fires that sparked
the evacuation of Seton and
Ts’al’álh were man-made, and while
no one has been charged, persons of
interest are being interviewed. The
persons in question are not local.
Ambie Alexander raced home when he heard about the fires that had
started up right near his house. He set up sprinklers on fence posts only
meters from his back porch, but with that he stopped the fire from
burning down his house. Below, Merna Peters works on the irrigation
ditch, which became clogged with debris after the fire. The dead needles
from scorched fir trees near the blaze showered down in the wind.
Communities debrief after wildfire emergencies
Three St’át’imc
communities were evacuated
due to forest fires in July
and August. For Ts’al’álh
and T’ít’q’et, the fires came
so close - 125 feet and less
- that major restoration is
now required to forests,
and repairs are needed
where fire suppression
activities took place. While
Xwísten received an
Evacuation Order because
roads in every direction
were threatened by the
fires, the community itself
did not end up close to
flames.
Meetings to debrief
on the events have taken
place in all
three communities.
. Ts’al’álh
Councilor Ida
Mary Peters called a meeting
for September 2, in
Seton. Residents of
Ts’al’álh and Seton came
out to inventory sites disturbed
by fire suppression
activities and by the fire
itself. Irrigation ditches,
roads and fences were bulldozed
to make access for
fire suppression crews.
The Wildfire
Management Branch
(WMB) makes itself available
to repair the damage
Major restoration and mitigation on steep
slopes and in creeks is now required.
Communities have had ideas about how
to prepare for emergencies in future.
caused in its emergency
measures to prevent wildfires
from destroying communities.
The Regional
District, through the
Ministry of Forests,
reviews the work of the
WMB and makes assessments
and prescription for
forest values that need to be
restored.
MoF’s Forests for
Tomorrow program will be
key in putting people to
work replanting burned
areas. If logging
salvage
operations take
place, those
contractors
will become responsible for
replanting.
The Kamloops Fire
Center has the responsibility
to ensure First Nations’
interests are reflected in
rehabilitation plans.
Near Ts’al’álh, fire
guards were built right
along trails. They will be
working together with contractors
to restore those
trails. Chief Larry Casper
of Ts’al’álh struck up a
working committee
between his community
and the WMB, the local
Seton Fire Chief, the Indian
Band Fire Crew and MoF
to oversee rehabilitation
work and continue to
strengthen the valley’s fire
fighting readiness.
A major question
for both Tsal’álh and
T’ít’q’et is, what will happen
along the steep slopes
that border the communities,
now that the trees are
burnt and dead?
Geomorphologists
and engineers are studying
the slopes and making recommendations
for fanning
out the potential debris