Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations
VICTORIA - British Columbia is experiencing an early and active start to the wildfire season, so it's more important than ever for communities and individuals to do their part to help protect homes, resources and infrastructure from wildfire threats.
FireSmart Canada has declared May 7, 2016 as the second annual Wildfire Community Preparedness Day, which is an ideal opportunity for communities throughout B.C. to learn more about preventing fires and reducing wildfire risks. Individual homeowners are also encouraged to take a really close look at their properties to determine how they could make them more fire-resistant by using simple FireSmart principles.
In September 2015, the B.C. government and the Union of B.C. Municipalities launched the $500,000 FireSmart Community Grant Program to encourage more communities to participate in the FireSmart program.
The recently updated FireSmart Homeowner's Manual was developed specifically to help homeowners reduce the risk of personal property damage from wildfire. The manual contains lots of helpful fire prevention tips and is available online at: http://bcwildfire.ca/Prevention/firesmart.htm