The municipality of Jasper and Parks Canada are bringing FireSmart education to a neighbourhood near you. 

On Wednesday, July 21, Deputy Fire Chief Ron Stanko and vegetation and fire specialist for the Jasper National Park Alan Westhaver spent the evening at Patricia Place, presenting a FireSmart evaluation for the development. 

Westhaver and Stanko are touring Jasper, providing the free evaluations to interested neighbourhoods.

At Patricia Place a group of residents were happy to discover their neighbourhood needed little work to become FireSmart. 

The FireSmart program is attempting to curb the risk of wildfire spreading through the town of Jasper. 

Stanko and Westhaver discussed two different scenarios that could threaten the town in the event of a wildfire. The first is an accidental, localized wildfire that could happen close to town and spread inwards. The second is a wildfire somewhere far off in the Athabasca Valley that sends a plume of smoke and embers high into the air. The embers could blow into town from kilometres away and settle, starting other smaller fires. This type of fire is what the city of Kelowna suffered in 2003, when 30,000 residents were evacuated and 200 homes were destroyed. 

The aim of FireSmart is to prevent the loss of homes before the fire starts. 

“Pre-fire is so important,” Stanko told the residents of Patricia Place. 

The development is located in Zone 2 of the municipality’s fire management plan. Zone 1 is the Cabin Creek development, which borders on the forest surrounding Jasper. 

Already FireSmart has thinned trees in both areas to prevent quick spreading of fire. In the event of a wildfire, the first step for fire crews would be to set up a series of sprinklers around the zones to “pre-wet” the properties.

The town has only four fire trucks, and Stanko said to save Zone 2 alone, eight trucks would be required. 

“You can’t count on endless numbers of firetrucks,” he said. When a wildfire occurs in a town, resources are pooled from other places where they are not needed, but sometimes if the fire is too severe, even the trucks are unable to access it. 

For Patricia Place, there is work to be done, but Westhaver said it was all easy. 

“Actually you guys are in really good shape,” he said. 

Around the residences, dead trees and brush had already been cleared. Westhaver suggested pruning the bottom branches of several trees in the area to prevent the spread of fire up to the crown of the tree, where forest fires are difficult to fight. There were several trees that needed to be removed due to pine beetle kill. Westhaver said the mostly pine forest the development is in is not particularly healthy. He recommended replacing the pine with Douglas Fir as they die out. Fir trees are not as easily combustible as a pine and other conifers. 

“All vegetation is not equal when it comes to fires,” Westhaver said. Junipers can be extremely flammable as well. “The evergreen trees are the thing we’re most concerned about.”

Another risk posed to the houses at Patricia Place is piles of lawn clippings that Westhaver recommended be picked up, and a few piles of dead branches that needed to be removed. Some fences were touching wild grasses from the forested areas, and it was recommended that residents mow lawns closer to the fence. 

A wooden fence can provide a straight path to the house, Stanko said. He recommended replacing rotten wooden boards with something non-combustible, or creating a buffer zone by replacing boards with something that will not catch fire where the fence touches the house.

Stanko was happy to notice none of the houses had flammable roofs. 

“The fact that you don’t have cedar shakes on your roofs is wonderful,” he said. Untreated wood shakes are a major fire risk. 

Along the roof, eavestroughs can fill with pine needles and become a fire hazard. Stanko recommended each resident clean out the gutters once a year. 

In the winter, Stanko suggested moving woodpiles away from the house, and only store as much as you need for the season. 

“It’s important to realize one little problem becomes everybody’s problem,” Westhaver said. If one house catches fire in a close-knit community, it is common to have others go up in flames as well. 

“It’s best not to be the origin of the fire,” Stanko said. 

In the event of a wildfire, Stanko urges residents to have an easily accessible hose with a nozzle nearby, so that fire crews or neighbours can use it to dampen your property if you are not home. 

Stanko also said it is extremely important that residents listen to fire crews when an evacuation order is issued. 

“It’s really time to go,” he said. He added that some people stay behind to try to protect their home, but it is an unsafe activity. A garden hose cannot pump nearly enough water to help save a home, and will only put the resident at risk. 

The FireSmart crews will be in Jasper until the end of August, and free risk evaluations are available. For contact information, visit the municipality of Jasper’s FireSmart website at www.jasper-alberta.com/firesmart or contact Sam Stickney, FireSmart program co-ordinator at 780-852-8146. 

Westhaver and Stanko are also willing to help out at work bees organized by each neighbourhood. One work bee was held on July 24, where brush was cleared and burned along Cabin Creek Drive. The next work bees will be August 7 and 21 at Lake Edith. More events will be announced on the Jasper FireSmart website. Block Parties will be held every Wednesday for the rest of summer, according to Christine Nadon, communications officer for the municipality of Jasper. Any association or neighbourhood is eligible for a Block Party, and Stanko and Westhaver are offering free evaluations of homes.