B.C. has lessons to learn from Los Angeles fires, experts say

As fires continue to burn across the Los Angeles area, experts say there are lessons to be learned about how British Columbia can prepare for wildfires on Canada's West Coast. 

Massive fires have killed at least 10 people and burned more than 10,000 homes and other structures since Tuesday in a densely populated, 40-kilometre expanse north of downtown Los Angeles.

Mathieu Bourbonnais, assistant professor in earth, environmental and geographic sciences at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, said the Los Angeles fires are not dissimilar to wildfires that burned north of the border in Kelowna and Scotch Creek in 2023 and Jasper, Alta., in 2024.

"We're starting to see some recurring patterns where really, really dry conditions and you get an ignition …combined with really strong winds, allows a fire to grow really aggressively and just exceed what we're able to deal with," Bourbonnais said.

Though B.C. has not witnessed the scale of destruction seen in a densely-populated city like Los Angeles, it did experience a devastating wildfire that swept through the village of Lytton in June 2021, destroying much of the community. 

Lucy Grainger with B.C.'s FireSmart program said, "California is a good place to look to see what kind of conditions we might see in parts of B.C. in the future."

Grainger notes that there are measures people can take to protect their homes from fire. She says it's important to clear fuels from areas like gutters and roofs and ensure decks and balconies are free from debris.

She says research indicates the majority of homes destroyed during a wildfire are actually ignited by embers or sparks.

"By removing flammable materials from around your home and the vegetation on your property, you can actually prevent embers from collecting and then prevent the house from igniting," Grainger said.

John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, which details the devastating 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, says building codes need to change to adapt to what he calls "21st-century fire." 

"Things are different now, and the additional heat that we're experiencing throughout the year energizes fire in a very potent way," Vaillant told CBC's On the Coast.

Bourbonnais says B.C. should consider ways to be more proactive about limiting the effects of wildfire.

"California does a lot of prescribed burning. They do a lot of fuel treatments, and the amount of resources that they can bring to a fire like this far exceeds what we can in Canada," he said. "So I think it speaks to the scale of the issue we're dealing with and just making sure that we're prepared."

Vaillant says while firefighters and prevention experts are doing their best, fires like the ones in the Los Angeles area are a sign that the rules of the game have changed due to "an altered climate that is making these types of fire events, not anomalies, but regular features."