Thread by @ThomasforBC

July 14th, 8pm. Here's what the satellites show for the last ~10 hours
#BCWildfire

Check out the #thomascreek wildfire by #okanaganfalls. Thankfully homes are downslope because this fire foxtrot oscar'd in the heat of the day

(Also keep an eye on that fire west of Kelowna starting)

This weather was forecasted and came as predicted, so it's no surprise this happened.

https://twitter.com/ThomasforBC/status/1415001539723218951?s=20

Thankfully (slightly) cooler weather in the forecast, but I also hear a chance of lightning 🤷

For those of you asking, I am one of those experienced fireline personnel sitting on the sidelines. As are many other experience personnel.

It might come across as politics, but calls from politicians like @shirleybond for a SoE make sense

https://twitter.com/shirleybond/status/1415489490085236736?s=20

@shirleybond At the very least we'd like to hear WHY we're not needed in this situation. I heard that our request for aid from Australia and NZ was denied.

So we need to look to our province to be self sufficient. @bcliberals like @PeterMilobar are asking.

https://twitter.com/PeterMilobar/status/1415188854059933696?s=20

As is @BlackwellMerlin - Mayor of Clearwater and former forestry worker. A fire near his town was commanded for ~10 days by industry, not BC Wildfire due to lack of resources.

https://twitter.com/BlackwellMerlin/status/1415158637933195264?s=20

And even @SoniaFurstenau is asking these questions.

When I hear the reports of extreme lack of resources, at the very least it warrants a response.

https://twitter.com/SoniaFurstenau/status/1414676899482128389?s=20

Again, my critiques are directed at the elected government. The same government who called an un-needed election during a global pandemic.

The same government who was in charge during the 2017/2018 fire seasons, but apparently didn't learn from them.

Twitter is probably not the right forum for complex forest policy and government procurement discussions, but there is much more we could have done.

Contingency resources take forethought, policy, and budget. All of which are controlled by elected politicians.

But the policy direction didn't occur and budget not allocated. So now we're scrambling to react.

A SoE shouldn't have to be the norm to respond to fire season we knew climate change would bring.

But we're in this situation and have to make the best of it.

Thanks to all the front line workers!

I know many burned out after 2017/2018. I've heard of burnout, PTSD, and low morale.

Now we're in this situation again and the resources weren't in place (again - politicians to blame) so we'll ask responders and communities to perform...

...above and beyond to keep people safe. I know they will.

But at some point we need to hold our elected officials to account.

/end rant