What is FireSmart?

FireSmart™ is living with and managing for wildfire in your area and on your property. Becoming wildfire resilient is a shared responsibility across BC. FireSmart and its seven disciplines is an all-encompassing program, extending from the individual homeowner level up to a landscape land management level. FireSmart principles have shown that they are effective at reducing the risk to life and property in the most extreme wildfire conditions. The FireSmart program is backed by a vast amount of field, laboratory and wildfire modelling research. Its methods help reduce the risk of losses under even the most extreme fire conditions.

The City aggressively pursues wildfire threat reduction treatments on BC Crown and Municipal Crown lands within the City boundaries. These varied treatments include salvage harvesting, basic pine removal activity with heavy equipment, hand crew treatments involving danger tree removal, spacing and pruning, and surface fuel reduction activities.

Wildfire threat reduction efforts are not conducted to stop all fires, as this is not realistic or achievable. The objective is to:

• use forest fuel management techniques to alter wildfire behaviour on the forested land adjacent to developments to greatly reduce the potential for house and structure losses
• create safe access for wildland fire crews to more efficiently and effectively control wildfires
• construct and maintain houses that are designed to withstand a wildfire

FireSmart, Intelli-feu and other associated Marks are trademarks of Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre Inc.