By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle

A review of the unprecedented 2023 wildfire season led to recommendations on ways to improve the Emergency Operations Centre’s (EOC) effectiveness and the creation of a second one for the region.

The Regional District of the Okanagan Similkameen (RDOS) heard a summary of the After Action Review (AAR) that was conducted on the overwhelming and unprecedented 2023 wildfire season. 

In 2023 there were three major wildfires within the RDOS. There was the Eagle Bluff Wildfire that took place near Osoyoos and Kilpoola. The Crater Creek Wildfire, which took place near Keremeos and into the Ashnola Valley. And the Upper Park Rill Wildfire, which took place between the Twin Lakes and Willowbrook area. 

The AAR found common areas for improvement around evacuation alerts and orders. Brittany Seibert, interim manager of Emergency Services for the RDOS summarized the AAR and explained that due to the unpredictability of the fire behaviour, such as the Eagle Bluff Wildfire, the tactical evacuations caused some “delay and confusion” around messaging and could work to be improved.  

Other areas identified for improvement were the time lag in mapping and public messaging to reduce confusion. 

Seibert also explained that a need was identified for a standard operating procedure for temporary access permits. 

She explained that oftentimes they receive requests after evacuations for people to go home and procure certain items, from clothing to medications to work computers. A process to ensure consistency is needed to address this. 

Some other areas identified for improvement were standard operating procedures for road blocks, defining roles and responsibilities of the various organizations within the emergency program, coordination with Indigenous partners and neighbouring jurisdictions, and the development of templates, cheat sheets, pre-incident plans and maps to expedite information sharing during responses. 

Seibert explained that the work plan going forward includes establishing an EOC communications plan including developing templates for organizing media releases and evacuation alerts and a flow chart for this information. 

The plan is also to establish an internal and regional roster, detailing who has the training and experience to be in the EOC.

Other work to be done is developing a Regional ESS Response Plan, focusing on using teams, working with First Nation communities, and having a training plan. 

After the presentation of the AAR some discussion centred around the Similkameen, and Jim Zaffino, chief administrative officer of the RDOS, explained that there will be a secondary EOC established in the Similkameen based on a previous recommendation to the board. 

Mayor of Keremeos, Jason Wiebe, said he was excited about the prospect of the secondary EOC. He noted that Keremeos will be meeting with the Lower Similkameen Band at the end of the month to talk about this secondary EOC.

Weibe noted further while talking about establishing this EOC that “hopefully next year we can have stronger ties of partnership before we need them”. 

Some other possible opportunities for improvements that were identified were establishing a “one-stop shop” communication hub for information and a single point of contact in the EOC.  

Seibert explained the idea of “one platform, for the entire region where everyone can go to whether they are looking for alerts, orders, any information regarding wildfires . . . rather than residents having to figure out which organization and which website they should be going to.”

Another idea presented was to develop EOC business practices to engage First Nation communities on all levels of emergency planning and make sure other agencies, such as BC Wildfire Service are advocating for engagement with First Nations early on in the procedures. 

The review did find some common themes for practices that were done well and should be continued such as: 

  • RDOS led coordination calls during EOC activations.
  • Activation of Public Call Centers during events.
  • Use of various Liaison positions, including Indigenous Liaison, ESS Reception Centre Liaison and EOC Fire Branch Liaison
  • Conducting regular media briefings
  • Coordination with Animal Lifeline Emergency Response Team (ALERT).
  • Rapid damage Assessment (RDA) coordination with the province. 
  • Overall collaboration for teamwork and mentorship throughout the Region.

The 2023 Wildfire season was a record breaking season where 2.84 million hectares burned throughout the province. The RDOS EOC was activated from July 29 until September 9 2023. 

Throughout the year EOC staffing was supported by RDOS, Penticton, Summerland, Oliver, Osoyoos, Princeton, and Okanagan Nation Alliance. ESS reception centres were established in Keremeos, Oliver and Penticton.