Prime Minister arrives in the Okanagan Valley
Trudeau up on B.C. wildfires, says officer with British Columbia Wildfire Service
Unsure of protocol, Kelowna fire Chief Travis Whiting hesitated Tuesday before asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for a picture after showing him the local emergency operations centre.
Whiting needn’t have wondered about the appropriateness of the request.
“The prime minister said, ‘Sure, no problem.’ Then he grabbed my phone, pressed a few buttons and started making a video. He knew my phone better than I do,” Whiting said later.
After asking the names of Whiting’s three kids, Trudeau looked to the camera and thanked Ethan, Jacob and Calum for putting up with the long hours logged this summer by their “amazing dad” and other firefighters.
“It was pretty special,” Whiting said. “I think my kids will be really excited to see that video.”
During Trudeau’s 19-minute visit to the Enterprise Way main fire hall, he shook the hands of about 50 firefighters, stopping to ask a few of them about their particular involvement battling floods and forest fires the past few months.
Randy Burgess, an officer with the BC Wildfire Service, said Trudeau was knowledgeable about the extent and duration of Okanagan Lake flooding, fires in other parts of B.C., and expressed particular interest about the blaze that has burned 1,500 hectares between Peachland and Summerland.
“I told him that fire went from 250 hectares to 1,000 hectares overnight, which is pretty extreme fire behaviour,” Burgess said.
“Usually, fires die down at night, but there’s so much incredibly dry fuel out there this one really took off.”
Burgess said he told Trudeau this was the busiest year he’s seen in a 40-year career with the BCWS: “More hectares have been burned, and we’ve spent more money fighting fires than ever before.”
Trudeau is in Kelowna along with the entire Liberal caucus for their first gathering since the summer break.
Before Trudeau toured the emergency operations centre inside the firehall, Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran told him the centre had been running consecutively for about 150 days as officials dealt with creek and lake flooding, as well as a spate of local forest fires.
"This is the way communities pull together," Trudeau told Basran.
Trudeau also met three students from UBC Okanagan, where he will hold a town-hall style meeting that's open to the public starting at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The gym has permanent seating for 862 people, but can accommodate more than 2,000 including folding chairs set up on the floor.
"Questions from the public are always tougher and more interesting than questions from the media," Trudeau told the students.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 1,000 people had indicated to Kelowna-Lake Country MP Stephen Fuhr's office they would likely attend the town hall meeting.
"There won't be any screening of questions," Fuhr said. "People can ask whatever they want."
After Trudeau departed the firehall, Chief Whiting said he thought the visit was appreciated by the men and women in uniform.
"A lot of the crews here have put in some extraordinarily long days, with a lot of physical labour and a mental toll," Whiting said.
"Something like this visit from the prime minister is a good refresher and a good motivational boost as we come into, hopefully, the last few weeks of what's been a long season of floods and fires," Whiting said.