How to help prevent forest fires on P.E.I., and prepare for any emergency
CBC
Islanders are being advised to prepare their properties to help reduce the damage in case of a wildfire. P.E.I.'s forest fire risk has been rated as extreme in recent days, and dozens of fires are burning in neighbouring Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Jason Woodbury, chief of the Miscouche Fire Department, said he's extremely worried about this fire season on P.E.I.
"Because of all the fuel that's in the forest from Fiona," he said.
"We're very lucky so far. We did have a little scare down in the eastern part of the province where the firefighters were very fortunate to get that out."
Woodbury is also the provincial liaison for FireSmart Canada, which works on wildfire education and prevention. He said research that came after wildfires in Alberta examining which houses survived and which were destroyed has provided valuable lessons. The key difference? What surrounded the homes.
Woodbury said absolutely nothing that can be ignited should be within 1.5 metres from a home, including mulch.
"We would encourage homeowners to use non-combustible materials like bricks or rocks, but not mulch or fir trees or pine trees, any type of trees that would combust during forest fires," he said.
"It's not the flames that actually cause your house to be consumed by fire, it's the embers that get carried during wildfires that do that."
Embers can fly into rain gutters, he said, so it's important to keep them clean too.
Within 10 metres from the home, Woodbury said, the focus should be on keeping the property neat and tidy.
"The [FireSmart] program educates homeowners to clean up anything that's on the ground, for example wood piles, and move them out farther away from your home," he said.
"Trim your trees to about two meters to keep the fire on the ground. because if we keep the fire on the ground it's easier for firefighters to manage and easier for firefighters to extinguish."
When it comes to trees around the property, Woodbury advised homeowners to think about what species they plant.
"We want to use hardwood trees. We don't want to use those green trees — you know, pine trees, fir trees," he said.
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