The Town of Banff is looking at an incentive program to get homeowners in areas of high and moderate wildfire risk to remove combustible roofs.
At a service review meeting on Monday (Nov. 21), council gave preliminary approval for a $45,900 FireSmart combustible roof replacement incentive program, but it won’t be a done deal until the final operating budget is passed.
Banff Fire Chief Silvio Adamo said the devastation of the Fort McMurray wildfire earlier this year was an eye-opener.
“A FireSmart property can make a significant difference between whether your property survives, or doesn’t survive, in a wildfire,” said Adamo.
“Combustible roofs are the largest surface areas that can catch embers and once a fire starts on one property and one structure, it can easily go to another to another to another and there’s no stopping it after that.”
Under current town rules, any new construction or replacement has had to include non-combustible roof materials in any homes in zones deemed moderate or high-risk should a wildfire enter town.
However, Banff has approximately 255 residential homes within high and moderate-risk zones. There are approximately 170 combustible roofs in high-risk zones and 85 combustible roofs in moderate risk zones.
The current cost to replace an untreated cedar shake roof to a non-combustible asphalt shingle roof on a duplex in the Middle Springs 1 area is approximately $6,000 to $7,000 per homeowner, or half of the duplex.
The incentive program would cost $45,900 each year for the next five years, for a total of $229,000. Homeowners would have to commit to adopting FireSmart principles wherever possible for their entire property to be eligible for the incentive.
There are two options being considered – contribute a fixed percentage of the cost or contribute a fixed amount of $900 per homeowner, which equates to a 15 per cent incentive based on a typical Middle Springs 1 home.
Adamo said resources and time required to protect a home with an untreated combustible roof more than doubles.
“With limited time and resources, these types of structures may be identified as un-protectable during a wildfire event and abandoned to protect homes with a higher probability of survival,” he said.
Councillor Chip Olver spoke in favour of the incentive program.
“This is one of the highest risk natural disasters that could happen in our community,” she said. “If we were to have a large fire that got into our community through the wildfire-urban interface, it could lead to catastrophic loss,” she added.
“As we saw the with impact of Fort McMurray, the cost of this program is minimal in terms of what we’re protecting, and compared to the cost of saving even one structure.”
The biggest fire threat to Banff comes from the west or southwest, where the forest continues to age and thicken. Sulphur Mountain, which last burned in the 1880s, provides one of the biggest worries.
Olver spoke to the challenges of evacuating people from the south side of the Bow River if a fire was to get into town.
“If we had to evacuate for fire as they did in Fort McMurray, then we have a challenge with one way across the river, or two when using the pedestrian bridge,” she said.
“There’s a lot of complexities in addressing a fire on that side of the river and I think this money is really justified.”
Preliminary findings in Fort McMurray’s Alan Westhaver report verifies and reinforces the need to follow FireSmart guidelines for homes and communities susceptible to heavy ember loading due to a high intensity wildfire.
“The report clearly demonstrates that homes that adopted FireSmart principles had a significantly higher survival rate compared to homes that did not apply FireSmart principles,” Adamo said.
The devastating Fort McMurray wildfire, which forced the evacuation of more than 80,000 people and destroyed about 2,400 buildings, has led many land managers and municipalities to rethink their fire readiness plans.
Fires in North America are expected to burn more frequently, with more intensity and become increasingly unpredictable with the effects of global warming on temperature, precipitation levels, and soil moisture turning many forests into kindling.
In addition to the incentive program to encourage homeowners to replace their roofs, council also gave preliminary approval to a $38,150 public education campaign, including door-to-door property assessments and consultation on all moderate to high-risk areas.
Also next year, Banff’s fire department will be involved in a tabletop exercise to train and prepare for a potential Sulphur Mountain wildfire. There is also talk of a mock training exercise on either a train derailment or wildfire.
Adamo said they were unsuccessful in their grant application for the comprehensive public education program, noting the provincial government had $3 million in grants to hand out this year, but there were $6 million worth of asks.
“We will continue to apply for grants every time there’s an opportunity, but we do believe this is important enough to be funded, particularly because of Fort McMurray and the awareness that has been raised with that,” he said. “This is an opportunity to enhance our FireSmart program and make our community safer.”
Mayor Karen said she couldn’t support either of the fire department’s operating budget requests, saying there were too many other priorities, such as transit, for her to consider this year.
She said it would be a far cheaper option to send a letter to the 255 homeowners to let them know they live in a moderate to high-risk area of town.
“I would want to know. I probably wouldn’t need an incentive,” she said.
