It’s a scenario that’s tantamount to a waking nightmare on the North Shore: Conditions have been hot and dry all summer when a tree branch comes down on the power lines at the base of Grouse Mountain, sparking a wildfire.
It’s quickly spreading up the face of the mountain and down into residential neighbourhoods below. Beyond tackling the blaze itself, crews will need to evacuate Grouse Mountain, the trails and, quite possibly, the Grousewoods and Canyon Heights areas too.
“The first day is a bit of a mess. We’re really scrambling to get as much done as we can, calling in other resources, and the fire spreads uphill very quickly,” says Matt Ciolfi, lead instructor of District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services wildfire program and organizer of Operation Peak Preparedness, a mock wildfire exercise carried out on Tuesday.
As Ciolfi pores over a giant map of the area with the local and visiting unit leaders from 25 agencies and fire departments from around the province, he notes where they will encounter a smaller burn that occurred in 2023.
“This is not impossible to happen,” he emphasizes.
Throughout much of the day, crews fanned out over the area to rehearse the actions they’d take to save lives, protect homes where possible, and try to put out the fast-spreading wildfire.
Residents in Grousewoods, where the first embers would be raining down in the event of a real fire, witnessed convoys of trucks, firefighters running hoses and turning water on invisible hotspots.
If conditions would allow, much of the fire suppression effort during a real wildfire would happen with bucketing helicopters and water bombers, but to practise getting boots on the ground in the steep terrain, crews were deployed up the forest access road at the top of Mountain Highway.
The exercise yielded a lot of valuable intel, Ciolfi said.
“From an exercise perspective, as long as we’re discovering things, learning things, then it’s a success. And that’s kind of the point. You never really know how prepared you are until you start putting things into practice.”
Although there were about 150 people in the field for Operation Peak Preparedness, the real thing would require many more, and they wouldn’t be available at a moment’s notice.
“It’s a huge strain on resources, and the resources that we would need are scattered across the province. The ones that we invited [Tuesday] are just a fraction of what we would actually need,” he said. “The fire departments in Metro Vancouver are constantly working together to streamline that process in how we would assist each other.… The conversations that went on between fire chiefs at that exercise will greatly improve the mutual aid response.”
And some crew members in the field found pockets without radio communication, Ciolfi said.
“Those are the things that we have to address,” he said.
The district’s wildfire protection crew is top-tier in the province, Ciolfi said, and the BC Wildfire Service has made large leaps in progress with protecting structures from wildfires. But, he said, there are still valuable actions residents can take now to help stave off the worst possible outcome should a branch come down on the hydro wires this August.
Ciolfi said he urges residents near the forest interface to book a free FireSmart home hazard assessment in which an expert will visit their property and create a customized plan on how to make their home less vulnerable.
Before the units began moving out on Tuesday, Mayor Mike Little offered his thanks.
“I’m just very excited to see all of these agencies working together and preparing and getting ready for that day when the catastrophe happens. I know that when we have a disaster in our community, that neighbours are going to stand up and support each other, but there’s something very special about the people who take their time to train and prepare.”
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