Grant to help plan better escape routes

Fleeing a forest fire by going through a forest may not be the best way to evacuate a neighbourhood

Quicker and safer ways to get out of West Kelowna are being sought by municipal leaders. People living in Àre-threatened neighbourhoods need better evacuation routes should Áames menace their homes, city councillors heard Tuesday. City officials want to create a new evacuation route planning program and hope to land a $25,000 provincial grant to assist in the undertaking. “Effective evacuation routes permit the movement of people, pets, livestock and personal property from an area of imminent or active danger to a safe location,” finance director Warren Everton writes in a report to council. The grant, if approved, would be used to hire a consultant to plan the new evacuation routes. Since 2007, three forest fires have forced the evacuation of West Kelowna neighbourhoods. People living in Glenrosa and Rose Valley were evacuated by fires on the same day in 2009, Smith Creek residents were evacuated in 2014, and people in the small lakeside community of Seclusion Bay were forced from their homes in 2010. In recent years, the city has worked with the provincial government to improve evacuation route signage along the upper portion of Glenrosa Road. The municipal street leads to two forest roads, Jackpine and Bear/Sunset Main, that residents could take to escape a forest fire that threatens Glenrosa. However, the apparent irony of taking 45-kilometre-long drives through wilderness areas during a time of forest fire threat was noted at a city council meeting in April 2018 by a spokesman for a Glenrosa residents’ association. “If you’re running from a forest fire, a forest may not be the best place to go,” Robert Mellalieu said at the time. It was suggested by Mellalieu the city consider building a new road across Powers Creek to provide a more direct, quicker evacuation route for Glenrosa residents, but he acknowledged that would be a costly, long-term proposal.