BADMINTON PLAYERS TAKE A SWING AT BC WINTER GAMES /PAGE 10
2016 CITY BUDGET CONSIDERATIONS /PAGE 3
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MERRITT HERALD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2016 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
FREE
ASSESSING THE WILDFIRE RISK PROBABILITY
x CONSEQUENCE =
Michael Potestio THE MERRITT HERALD
While the likelihood is low, the consequences of a wildfire in Merritt are high according to the city’s new community wildfire protection plan. The plan is an update to the original 2004 document and comes with recommendations for protecting the community. A risk assessment was conducted in the plan, which shows that while the probability of a wildfire in town is low, the consequences of one would be devastating. The probability of a wildfire igniting was found to be predominantly moderate overall, but high to extreme in many areas surrounding Merritt. Suppression capabilities, however, are good throughout most of the area, the plan found. “A large part of Merritt, based on fire behaviour and based on the fuel type, has a high to extreme probability of fire,” said Bruce Blackwell of Blackwell and Associates to city council at a committee of the whole meeting last Tuesday. When it comes to overall fire risk, Merritt was labelled as predominantly high. Throughout the developed area it’s
generally moderate to high, with some isolated points labelled extreme. The city itself is ranked low and the area immediately adjacent to it has a high fire risk. “It’s really the periphery areas and the homes that are out of the [town] core that we’re mostly concerned with,” Blackwell said. “Really the probability of wildfire is associated with some hazardous fuel types — largely those on the Bench [area of town],” he said. He said fires up in this area could bring embers into the town core which could spark multiple fires. The recommendations in the plan come with cost estimates and level of priority. Those earmarked as high priority include upgrades for critical infrastructure to ensure all buildings meet FireSmart standards, partnering with the ThompsonNicola Regional District to discuss purchasing a water tender with a rated pumping capacity to support emergency response in fire protection agreement areas that border Merritt, and design, plan and implement a treatment to protect critical infrastructure on Iron Mountain. The overall fire risk (above) is the product of the probability (left) multiplied by the consequence (middle). B.A.
See ‘22 recommendations’ Page 8
Blackwell and Associates, Ltd.
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