Fire Focus

It’s been a crazy summer, as BC battles massive forest fires yet again.

I can only hope that the folks living in the interior don’t have time to watch the TV news. If they do, they will often see their predicament relegated to second place after the inconveniently hazy conditions in Vancouver.

I cringe every time I turn on the news. This is the style of reporting we are subjected to: the camera zooms in on a woman walking her dog near Kitsilano Beach in Vancouver. There are a few people on the beach behind her, but the sunlight has an orange tint to it and the North Shore Mountains are invisible.

“It’s just awful,” she says to the camera. She appears genuinely annoyed, even offended. “There is no point going anywhere. The air smells like smoke. Disgusting. I am worried about my dog with all this pollution.”

The short clip is followed by a shot of tall buildings shrouded in a smoky haze and no mountains in sight. It’s a terrible day in Vancouver.

Next, viewers are shown a map of the province. A semi-transparent sheet of grey represents a smoky blanket that covers virtually the entire province. There is talk of the warm weather and about the jet stream, how it is moving and expected to move, and speculations as to when the air may clear up.

Finally, they move on to the next most important item: the forest fires raging in BC’s interior. If this were a newspaper, we would be on page two.

We see very short clips of fires consuming vast tracts of forest and occasionally homes, farms, and businesses that are either threatened by the flames or have actually burned. A commentator states that although there are many fires this year, the total acreage affected is only half of last year’s. This is helpful information. Certainly, it must not be as bad as it looks or smells!

At the same time, fire crews are risking life and limb to try and protect communities, ranchers, and farmers. Homes, cabins, businesses, and farms are threatened or are lost to the flames. Many residents are displaced, can’t work, and are staying with faraway friends or relatives or in hotels and motels. Ranchers are forced to put down cattle that have managed to escape the flames, but whose hooves and legs are so severely burned that there is no hope of recovery. Many people can’t sleep at night—not because they are inconvenienced by the bad air, but because of constant worry.

These are folks who work in resource-based sectors and keep this province afloat, the hardy types who aren’t afraid of working long hours in the summertime and can also handle a real Canadian winter.

My heart goes out to our many CLAC members who are going through this ordeal again—from the displaced residents to the hardworking people trying to keep everyone safe.

Now back to the news, which is quickly moving on to pipeline protesters being sentenced. It’s a typical day in the newsroom and another terrible day in Vancouver.