亚洲天堂 Lake鈥檚 director of protective services (fire chief) Rob Krause recently shared his expertise with the B.C. Wildfire Service鈥檚 incident management team in charge a fire near 100 Mile House.

Residents of the town were asked to evacuate the area on July 9 due to the fast-moving Gustafsen wildfire. As of last Thursday, the fire had consumed approximately 5000 hectares.

Krause was assigned to the team as a coach and mentor for six days. He worked directly with the incident commander to assist him in developing his skills on this type of incident.

鈥淚 was a type one incident commander for the province for the last 10 years prior to retiring [with the B.C. Wildfire Service], so I have a lot of experience in dealing with these types of large, complex interface fires,鈥� explained Krause. 鈥淚 also assisted the incident commander with dealing with the local government, structural fire departments and the Office of the Fire Commissioner.鈥�

Krause said the series of fires seen over the past couple of weeks in B.C. has created complex situations.

鈥淭his is not the first time that we have had numerous simultaneous fires in the province, but the fact that so many of them have impacted communities directly makes this season especially challenging,鈥� he said.

鈥淭his was a very complex incident with a lot of agencies involved in both fighting the fire and dealing with the people affected,鈥� he continued. 鈥淔ire behaviour was very challenging with wind causing the largest potential for difficulties.鈥�

鈥淩esponders are required to work long hours and there are numerous challenges to overcome; for instance, when you evacuate a town like 100 Mile House, how do you feed all the people who stay behind to run equipment or keep the town infrastructure operating?鈥�

鈥淲ith the sheer number of large fires starting so quickly, it is very difficult to be able to respond fast enough and with enough resources to meet this challenge,鈥� he added.

When asked how this fire season compares with previous years, Krause said 2003 is an obvious comparison, but that 2014 and 2015 were also busy years with multiple interface fires in a very short timeframe.

Krause added that the Village of 亚洲天堂 Lake is considering sending a crew and a mini pumper to affected areas if the Office of the Fire Commissioner puts in a request.