Wildfires of the past months are both a warning and a call to action

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If this summer has shown us anything, it’s that much of what we knew about wildfire prediction and response is now inherently unreliable.

Canada has just experienced its worst wildfire season on record, and a warming world suggests an increasingly greater threat. Our assumptions and methods of response must adapt.

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The past months are both a warning and a call to action. Plume-dominated fire, fire tornadoes and rapid, unpredictable fire behaviour have changed the game. Since March, more than 5,700 wildfires have displaced families and destroyed properties in B.C., Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec. Many of those fires continue to burn out of control. For the parts of Canada that didn’t experience fires directly, many still suffered the health effects of damaging and dangerous wildfire smoke.

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Events in B.C.’s Interior showed that the strength and ferocity of this year’s wildfires created unpredictable fire behaviour undeterred by conventional firefighting techniques. Relying on what we once did will no longer be enough. Responding effectively to future wildfire threats will require more than incremental adjustment. Significant investment needs to be made to advance research and innovation and create new knowledge in at least five areas.

First, all sectors and all levels of government need to come together in new ways. Historic response to wildfires has relied mainly on provincial resources outside urban boundaries, and municipal resources inside city limits, with these agencies usually working independently. This summer, we watched as the paradigm began to shift. Canada saw community, municipal, regional, provincial and federal resources working together in unprecedented ways as wildfires became too big for any agency to face individually. Such layered and reciprocal responses will become more critical.

Second, investment in wildfire research and innovation is paramount. As it becomes clear that previous assumptions no longer hold, we need to investigate new approaches. There is an urgent need to increase knowledge about fire science, response, behaviour, technology and cultural burning to respond to wildfire using knowledge and resources fitting with the requirements of a changing world.

Thirdly, access to highly trained, skilled and experienced personnel is no less important. This year’s fire season was devastating, underscored by the heartbreaking loss of four wildland firefighters who were killed while protecting communities. Firefighter training and education, informed by timely research, will be crucial to prepare firefighting pros for extraordinary wildfire intensities and behaviours.

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There has been much discussion recently about the need for a national firefighting force to support local and provincial wildfire responses. Military backup was provided this summer but could only assist with evacuations and staging. Having additional wildfire-trained federal resources available for times of disaster is a fourth strategy that merits close consideration.

Finally, as we do all these things, we must take more seriously our responsibility to learn from Indigenous land management approaches. Cultural burning and prescribed fire have long served to reduce the risk of fire, improve ecological restoration and assist silviculture. Indigenous knowledge about wildfires has existed for thousands of years.

Wildfire is currently top-of-mind as the human and financial costs are felt across the country. However, once the season has ended and this attention abates, we will continue to have a responsibility to our communities and country to remember this season as an example of future threats. The end of the fire season is the time to adjust current emergency response strategies for the future.

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The federal government will need to open discussions about firefighting resources and new approaches to fire management. This summer’s warning means governments, Indigenous and local communities, scientists, policy specialists, and the private, public and post-secondary sectors must come together. We need to develop novel solutions informed by the best and most timely research and innovation, as well as traditional knowledge, to protect our valued firefighter force and communities.

The aftermath of this fire season can’t be just about recovery. We need new collaborations between governments, Indigenous communities, researchers, and the public and private sectors. Our responsibility now lies in devising new strategies to ensure a safer, more resilient future for all Canadians.

Dr. Brett Fairbairn is president and vice-chancellor of Thompson Rivers University, a research centre in Kamloops working to develop new capacity in the fields of wildfire science and emergency management.

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