Here's why the Knox Mountain wildfire wasn't any worse

Like many people who saw the Knox Mountain Wildfire spark into life on Canada Day, Tara Bergeson thought ‘uh-oh!’ as she looked at the smoke from across the valley coupled with the dry and very windy conditions.

But her secondary thoughts were more optimistic as she pondered the quick response by fire suppression crews and the terrain the fire was in.

Bergeson is the Urban Forestry Supervisor for the City of Kelowna and is responsible for wildfire mitigation and maintaining years of similar efforts by others over the past two decades.

“My first thoughts were ‘that’s not what you want to see in our urban forested area’”, she told Kelowna10 on a visit to the area two weeks on from the wildfire that prompted hundreds, albeit brief, evacuations. But knowing the extensive fuel reduction work that had been done across the whole of the mountain park she had a degree of hope.

“You knew it was going to be a better opportunity for containment than an area that wouldn’t have been treated,” she said, while admitting mitigation efforts can’t be judged until they’re properly tested in a real fire situation. In this case they passed the test.

“It’s every part along the way,” she explained regarding the combination of things that need to be done for a successful outcome. “The mitigation work is important to create the situation where we have extremely talented and knowledgeable suppression folks come in to manage. It’s teamwork from start to finish.”

Fire triangle

Walking around the fire site Bergeson showed off the fuel reduction work that helped keep the Knox Mountain blaze from being any worse.

“It’s the fire triangle: fuel, oxygen and heat, “ she explained. “The way we modify fire intensity is by modifying fuels,” she said, pointing to the extensive thinning of ground cover, the removal of smaller trees, and the cutting off of up to 4-metres of branches on existing trees. That prevents fire from travelling up into the tree canopy.

“That’s critical in keeping the fire on the ground and manageable by fire crews… creating that ground-to-air clearance so water and fire retardant can get to the ground, to penetrate the canopy, ” she said, highlighting how flames had scorched trees but had not found their way any higher than that 4-metre branch removal line.

What should individuals do

Bergeson and her team continue to reduce fuels and monitor things across the city’s natural areas and along the interface with forests and wild land. The area on the eastern side of Knox Mountain Park has also been mitigated and a treatment will be done on McKinley Mountain Park later this year.

But she said homeowners can and should do their part too. This year has already set new records for how dry it has been and hundreds of wildfires rage throughout the province.

“The other critical piece of the puzzle is homeowners taking responsibility for the available fuels on their own property,” she said, focusing on FireSmart principles. “These can be removing any flammable material from within 1.5 metres around your home, pruning trees, and removing flammable vegetation like cedar and juniper which pose a very high risk.” Clearing gutters, stairways and other nooks and crannies of any debris are also key parts of home mitigation.

The city offers a free curbside wood chipping service every May to assist homeowners in removing debris after they’ve cut back unwanted flammable trees and shrubs.

Forest will bounce back

Despite the charring across the forest floor and around tree stems, the lightly forested area at Knox Mountain Park will recover, and quickly, Bergeson explained.

“Pondorosa pine and Douglas fir - trees that are native to our area - are well designed with thick bark to withstand low intensity fires like we’ve seen here. So, this tree, even though it looks quite burnt is quite healthy underneath. It will absolutely thrive through this event.”