What would you do if the order were given to evacuate your home and business because a ferocious fire was raging toward you?
Thousands in the Interior have been facing that very situation for weeks and so could Whistler residents if just one careless person chucks a butt in the woods or causes a spark in their yard.
"I don’t mind saying we are getting frustrated a bit by these smokers who are continuing to throw their butts around and that is all it takes to get a fire started," said Whistler Fire Chief Bruce Hall.
"We are still at an extreme fire rating and any little thing could create a problem for us."
Firefighters attended two fires Tuesday night, which without prompt attention could have been serious. One was at Lost Lake, caused by a discarded cigarette, and the other was at a residence.
Despite the extreme fire rating Hall said the resort is not closing down trails as happened this week in the Lower Mainland.
"Logistically it is impossible for us to do that," he said.
"But we are just really encouraging people to be careful out there."
Hall has just returned from a posting in the Interior as Fire Branch Co-ordinator.
He got a chance to see the devastation first hand and it really hit home.
With the winds Whistler has been experiencing Hall is concerned that if a fire started here residents would have only minutes to get organized and get out.
"In Louis Creek (50 kilometres north of Kamloops) people only had five or 10 minutes to get out," said Hall.
"To be quite frank Louis Creek does not exist anymore and the people there have lost everything, and my heart really goes out to those people.
"They have lost their homes, their community and their employment. The ferocity of those fires is immense.
"It could be same scenario here as at Louis Creek if we had a wind. That is why we are really, really urging people to be extremely careful in the woods."
Hall was in charge of 50 pieces of fire apparatus and 246 personnel from 55 different fire services while in Kamloops.
All were used to fight the Cedar Hill fire, the Strawberry Hill fire and the McLure fire.
"Mostly the job was to put out spot fires around homes because there was fire in the community," said Hall.
Most of the fires were Rank-5 or Rank-6 fires – the worst you can get. Hall said these types of fire rage through treetops at high speed and there is nothing firefighters can do except get out of the way and fight the fire at its flank.
Fires of that intensity can also create their own wind, making them even more unpredictable and difficult to fight.
"It is extremely frightening and there is absolutely nothing you can do," said Hall.
"All you can do is get out of the way of it."
The degree of a fire is generally determined by what is burning so a small ground fire would be a Rank-1 fire while a Rank-6 fire is a fast moving, tree-top burning blaze.
Concern over the situation in B.C. is so high the provincial government has taken the unprecedented step of creating a provincial fire department.
"The situation in our province this summer goes beyond anything we have experienced in the past," said Solicitor General Rich Coleman.
"It is essential that the Fire Commissioner has as much flexibility as possible in deploying resources to protect B.C. communities, so… we have established a provincial fire department under the Emergency Program Act."
And earlier this week the province issued its most restrictive travel advisory ever, asking residents and visitors to avoid the backcountry in the entire southern half of the province.
"I think it is an excellent strategy," said Hall referring to the idea of a centralized command.
"What they have done in essence is create two fire departments, one for the central Interior out of Kamloops, and one in Cranbrook.
"They have taken all the fire apparatus in those regional districts and created one fire service. In addition to that they also have units from the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island in those areas.
"It is a centralized command but it also negates any boundaries. There is no red tape, there are no boundaries and a community cannot say, well you can’t take our apparatus."
There are currently 3,500 firefighters working on more than 800 active fires in the B.C. Five of those firefighters are paid-on-call members from Whistler.
Hall plans to take what he learned in Kamloops and revamp the fire department’s emergency plan.
"One of our goals this year was to review our emergency plan, certainly with what I have learned," he said.
"The province works under something called the B.C. Emergency Response Management System and our plan doesn’t reflect that so we will be looking at re-writing our plan to reflect that organizational style.
Hall said over the last week or so personnel have been brushing up on Whistler’s emergency plan, just in case and to make sure everything is in order.
If an evacuation order was given emergency response personnel would go door to door alerting the community and giving directions about what to do.
There is not much the individual citizen can do except be careful and think about what to take in case of an evacuation order.
Remember, said Hall, who is hoping for rain: "Property can always be replaced, but people’s lives can’t."
