Tag Archives: Open Burning Ban

Disaster

Cortes Fire Department Preparing For The Worst Case Scenario

The Cortes Island Fire Department is preparing for what could be the driest summer on record. They have purchased more equipment, a new pumper truck, and are about to start recruiting for a much larger wildfire brigade. After a year and a half as the interim Fire Chief, Eli McKenty may be staying on. This was not the story Cortes Currents expected to cover. An open fire prohibition came into effect at noon on Friday, May 17.

They were flushing water through one of the trucks in the front yard, when I arrived. Chief McKenty took me up to the office where it was quieter. There are two other desks there. BC Emergency Health Services Unit Chief Kim Robertson was away, but Office Manager Tammy Allwork was working on her computer. Their work spaces were meticulously laid out, with everything in its place. A few books and papers were sprawled across McKenty’s desk.

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Animals, Disaster, Politics

Proposed Open Fire Ban; Moving towards a Dog Control Service

Regional Director Mark Vonesch brought two Cortes Island motions before the SRD Board on Wednesday, September 13. Both were passed with no opposing votes. The first was to draw up an Open Burning Bylaw in the parts of Cortes Island within the South Cortes Fire Protection Area. However the electorate needs to approve the second item, a proposed Dog Control Service. 

Vonesch was on the way home, waiting in the ferry line-up at Heriot Bay, when he spoke with Cortes Currents:

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Disaster

Can chainsaw usage be prohibited during the summer heat?  

The #1 complaint the Cortes Island Fire Department received this summer was that some people continued to use chainsaws despite the drought and the possibility of sparking a wildfire. Interim Fire Chief Eli McKenty said this occurred in multiple locations across Cortes Island. He explained the current regulations are ‘too fuzzy’ to enforce and a possible solution may be adding chainsaw use to the proposed Cortes Island Open Burning Bylaw currently before the Strathcona Regional District Board.

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Disaster, Politics

What’s happening with the Cortes Island Open Burning Bylaw?

There was a great deal of anger on Cortes Island when the province lifted the open campfire ban on June 21.  As Nancy Kendel wrote in the Tideline, “We have had basically NO RAIN since beginning of May, and our forests are tinder dry!” The ban was reimposed days later, but the underlying problem persists today. Cortes Island is part of the Coastal Fire Centre, and the regulations governing it are drawn up in a wetter climate.

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Disaster, Politics

An Open Burning Bylaw for Cortes Island

SRD staff is preparinig an open Burning Bylaw for Cortes Island. 

This is in response to Coastal Fire Centre’s decision to allow campfires, on June 20: ‘due to cooler conditions and rainfall, which has reduced the fire danger rating in these areas.’ However appropriate this may have been in other areas under the Centre’s control, it was not on Cortes Island. As Nancy Kendel wrote in the Tideline, “We have had basically NO RAIN since beginning of May, and our forests are tinder dry!”

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