We can no longer claim not to have been warned.
Climate change means drier summers and more wildfires on the West Coast. Metro Vancouver issued an air quality advisory over the weekend while crews worked to contain a wildfire in Richmond.
For most, the annual smell of smoke in the air and taste of soot in our mouths is an inconvenience — but if you have respiratory difficulties, it’s a threat.
While a wildfire will gladly consume anything in its path, we have had, thankfully, very few fatalities in B.C. over the years.
That’s something we owe to evacuation efforts by the authorities in the fire-plagued Interior but also a cultural appreciation by people there for the gravity of the risk fires present.
Here in the Tri-Cities, it’s time we realized the same risk with many kilometres of neighbourhoods that interface with forests where thousands people go to recreate at the driest times of the year — and some cause fires.
That means no longer accepting people smoking in areas where they should not be. If you see someone throwing cigarette butts on the ground, stomp out those potential fire-starters.
