Province announces new wildfire training and education centre at TRU 

On the heels of the province’s worst wildfire season in 2023, Premier David Eby stressed the importance of preparedness and proactiveness during an announcement held at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in Kamloops (Tḱemlúps).

At the event on April 4, the premier announced the creation of a new wildfire training and education centre at the university, which the B.C. government says is the first of its kind in North America.

Last year’s wildfire season saw tens of thousands of people evacuated and 2.84 million hectares of land scorched, with the communities of Secwepemcúl’ecw being no exception.

“By establishing the first-of-its-kind wildfire training and education centre in North America, we are preparing our future wildfire professionals for the critical work of protecting our forests, our communities and our families in a rapidly changing climate,” Eby announced in a statement.

In preparation for the 2024 wildfire season, Eby consulted an Expert Task Force on Emergencies, which developed a list of 31 recommendations for managing future wildfire seasons. 

The task force was created in October 2023 and consists of public service personnel and experts, including First Nations leaders, the executive director of the First Nations Emergency Services Society, regional fire chiefs and others.

Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir was part of the task force and said she was glad to see some immediate implementation of the recommendations made.

“At Tḱemlúps te Secwépemc we have a history of providing leadership and community supports in times of crisis and emergency to all residents of the region,” she said in the statment.

One key recommendation from the task force emphasizes the importance of ongoing education and training to mitigate the impacts of emergencies — this led to the development of the new centre. 

Explaining the selection of TRU as the centre’s chosen location, Eby highlighted the university’s existing research and professionals who have already been working in the wildfire science field. 

“[TRU] already had the foundation in place, they already had the academic rigour in place on this wildfire side, and the expansion of undergraduate credits as well as basic training made a lot of sense to have it all under one roof,” he said during the April 4 event.

“The centre will offer everything from basic training all the way through to postdoctoral work on fire behaviour and science.”

As a collaboration between TRU and the BC Wildfire Service, the program is set to begin intake in 2025, according to the province. It will start with basic skills training but lead to diploma and degree programs in wildfire and emergency management disciplines. A dedicated building for the program is also in development.

TRU president and vice-chancellor Brett Fairbairn spoke on the evolution of the university’s fire knowledge leading to this partnership.

“We are working in partnership with the province using our strengths as a university in research, teaching, curriculum development and innovation to improve how, as a society, we adapt to living with wildfire,” Fairbairn said during the event.

“We have a history rooted in the interior; We engage with the Secwépemc, as well as other First Nations and Métis and small communities who face fire risk on the land.”

Scott Hildebrand, the chief administrative officer of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District and member of the task force, commended the diverse group that worked together throughout their many meetings. 

During the event, Hildebrand said they were “truly a remarkable group that added significant value and provided a comprehensive and well-rounded view of the task at hand.”

“The task force also carried out targeted engagements with over 60 emergency management partnerships, and stakeholders [who] were impacted by recent emergencies, along with other groups that offered to share their perspectives with the task force.” he said.

“The one thing I would like to emphasize is that we all have a role to play going forward.”

This spring season, there is a relatively low snowpack throughout the province, and many places including Secwepemcúl’ecw are experiencing drought, which is a concern heading into the wildfire season.

Read more: Q&A: What does the ongoing drought mean for Kamloops?

Mike Flannigan — the BC Innovation Research Chair in Predictive Services, Emergency Management and Fire Science — spoke on the benefits of AI as a tool for wildfire prevention and management.

“It can help with predicting where extreme fire weather will occur, it will help predict where we expect new fire starts from lightning and from people, and using this will help us better react with [the] initial attack, moving resources to the areas ahead of time, being proactive instead of reactive,” he said during the event.

Minister of Forests Bruce Ralston also spoke about the measures already taken this year, such as increasing firefighter recruitment from all areas.

“We’ve also enhanced recruitment from rural, remote, First Nations communities, providing us with more opportunities to take local knowledge and networks and use it to fight the fires.”

He emphasized the use of TRU as a groundbreaking centre where the BC Wildfire Service’s training will be enhanced.

“Through the new centre, we will take action to grow our local contingent of wildfire fighters, provide them with cutting-edge science and technology, and support their long-term career development here in British Columbia,” Ralston said.

In the coming years, Ralston said the BC Wildfire Service will expand in the new centre and eventually offer over 1,000 workshops, including First Nations history and cultural fire, predictive technologies, wildfire and climate science and more. 

Eby highlighted the need for trusting relationships within the wildfire service.

“Giving people an opportunity to choose which parts of the province they work in so that people with knowledge of the local community and local terrain are more likely to be working in an area that they know well, and where they know the people and those relationships and trust are already in place,” Eby said.

“Training with First Nations, especially in more rural and remote areas where First Nations are going to be on the frontlines of wildfire response, making sure that First Nations have the equipment, the tools, the training, the support, to be able to make the initial attack.”