Editor: Re: RMO, May 12 … Banff well prepared for wildfire situation. I beg to differ with the fire chief as to Banff’s preparedness for a wildfire situation.
As a resident of Middle Springs, I am surrounded by towering, highly flammable spruce and lodgepole pine within metres of my home. Numerous linear corridors of these flammable tree species (both sides of Cave Avenue, both sides of Glacier/Jasper Way, both sides of Middle Springs Drive, Valleyview, Marmot Crescent area, etc.) that have been left untouched will allow a wind-driven wildfire to enter the heart of these residential areas and reduce them to ashes.
Can we count on the “fireguards” to the west and south of town? I fear not. Anyone who has taken a walk west from town toward Sundance Canyon will see that the forest fuel thinning that took place many years ago on the northwest shoulder of Sulphur Mountain has now grown back (in some areas) and created so-called “ladder fuels” – trees 10 to 15 feet tall that carry ground fire into the larger tree canopy. Numerous other thinned areas around town exhibit the same situation.
As we have recently seen in Fort McMurray, wind-driven fire erupts and moves with frightening speed. In only a matter of hours, Fort McMurray was an inferno. And they had an airport with numerous helicopters and water bombers at hand.
We here in the Bow Valley must rely on water bombers coming from Calgary (I believe) with a lengthier turnaround time than Fort McMurray.
So what can be done to help out our volunteer firefighters?
I have the greatest respect for those who put their lives on the line to protect our communities from fire. But we must ask ourselves how we can make their job easier, and to do that requires some serious change to our community.
We (the town, the national park and individuals ) need to reduce the amount of highly combustible spruce and pine found both inside the townsite and on its periphery. The town must not allow the planting of additional coniferous trees inside its boundary.
All conifers (fire resistant Douglas fir the exception) must be pushed back 50 to 100 metres from any structure. Tax dollars spent on the purchase of a building on Beaver Street that we taxpayers don’t need or want could be better spent on protecting residential neighbourhoods on both sides of the river.
After watching the devastation in Fort McMurray last week, I have to question the Town’s priorities.
So, fellow residents of Middle Springs (and other residential neighbourhoods), when the fire index moves into the high or extreme range this summer (or next) make sure you move all your important valuables to the front door and prepare … to run for your lives.
David Hunter,
Banff
