Monthly Archives: August 2010

100-Mile burger lands at the Hume

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Bread, cheese and beef all come from within a 100 miles, making the classic burger a local affair at the Hume Hotel.

A new business in Nelson that provides locally-raised meat has found a willing partner in the Hume Hotel.

Jen Barclay created Fattoria this summer and it’s her business that provides the heart, as it were, to the burger.

The 100-Mile Burger draws on beef from Creston, cheese from Grand Forks and buns from Pass Creek to live up to its name. It was re-introduced to the Hume on Friday, Aug. 27.

Re-introduced is the right word because the Hume couldn’t keep up with demand and sold out within 24 hours when they first launched the burger.

Ryan Martin, general manager of the Hume, had bought burger for what he thought would be a month and was astonished how quickly it went.

It was a response Barclay was excited to see.

“I am just so thrilled that people are willing to eat this way and make that choice. This is about small independent business coming together to support each other to help make a difference about the choices we make about food and about buying local.”

Read the full story at Food In The Koots.

‘Fire department needs new station’: Grypma

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One hundred and one years ago the Nelson fire station was cutting edge. The fire chief says it's time to start talking about a new location for the department. Photo by Chris Shepherd.

A hundred and one years ago, Nelson’s fire hall was cutting edge. It was strategically placed in the centre of town and had plenty of room for the horse teams that pulled the fire-fighting equipment. The fire department’s needs have changed over the century and the city’s fire chief says it’s time to start planning for a new fire hall.

Simon Grypma, chief of the Nelson Fire Rescue Services, says the 101-year-old building has served the community well, but city planners in 1909 couldn’t have anticipated the city’s growth or the kind of equipment the fire department uses to protect the community.

“Back in 1909 our city forefathers had the foresight to build one of the most modern fire stations in the province of British Columbia.”

Back in 1909, the fire hall was in the centre of town, a position that made it easy for teams of horses to pull fire-fighting equipment up the mountain should there be a fire there.

Now the location, perched on a steep section of Ward Street, poses serious problems for firefighters, especially in the winter, says Grypma. The steep hill and heavy vehicles have created some tense moments for Nelson’s firefighters who have struggled with a tendency for the fire trucks to slide sideways as they back up into the fire station.

Nelson's fire department used to use a horse and carriage system like this to fight fires. Photo source: Nelson Fire Department.

Needless to say, the capacity of horses to pull wagons up hill is no longer a consideration for Grypma’s fire department. One hundred years ago, firefighters had four horsepower at their disposal (that is, four horses). These days, the fire department’s trucks start at 400 hundred horsepower.

“With today’s apparatus, our fire station could be located in a better location that would access Fairview, and Rosemont, and Uphill and the downtown core from a location that’s more central to the community.”

Grypma would like to see the conversation begin on a new location for the fire department because it’s a long-term project that could take several years.

Provincial regulations push need for discussion

Aside from not meeting current needs, the fire station doesn’t meet provincial regulations: Namely, it wouldn’t likely survive a major disaster in Nelson.

“If there was a disaster in our community – earthquake, flood and so on – it may not survive as it should.”

There are also problems with the building’s electrical and heating systems.

Grypma says the existing building would be left and the fire department would move to a new site.

An architect assessed the current fire hall and identified the requirements and areas that required upgrading, available space for equipment and the services the department provides.

Upgrades underway

While the major structural problems aren’t being addressed, yet, the city is looking to make the building more efficient.

The City of Nelson has issued a requests for proposals to replace the building’s single-pane windows, improve the insulation in the attic and install de-icing cables on the roof.

This is work that will address some minor problems and Grypma says there needs to be a discussion on how much the community wants to spend on the old building.

“We need to talk about whether or not we’re going to spend millions of dollars to renovate the fire hall and still not meet today’s standards for fire halls or to look at a long-term plan on replacing the facility.”

Glacier Howser project forging onward

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A proposed private power project could see Glacier Creek (pictured here) and nearby Howser Creek developed and diverted for power production. Project proponent, Axor Inc. recenty submitted further information to the BC Environmental Assessment Office in a bid to see the project continue on its way through the environmental assessment process. Nelson Post photo.

One year after they were asked to go back to the drawing board and do more research, proponents of the controversial Glacier-Howser power project have submitted their findings to B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office (EAO).

The environmental assessment process for the project was suspended last September by the EAO after it was decided that the proponent, Montreal-based Axor Inc. needed to do more research on potential impacts to the genetically unique and blue-listed bull trout that inhabit Glacier and Howser Creeks upon which the project is planned.

The West Kootenay Eco Society (WKES) contacted Kathy Eichenberger, the project assessment director for the Glacier-Howser project last week, who confirmed that Axor  had recently submitted the additional information requested by the EAO.

“Basically, it’s at the working group right now and the working group has the power to say ‘this is not good enough,’ and send it back, or say that it’s OK,” said Raelynn Gibson of the WKES.

Gibson was told that if the information submitted by Axor is sufficient, the project would continue on from where it left off in the process, which was halfway through the 180-day assessment period.

She said the only way there will be a second public consultation process on the project is if there is any significant redesign or alteration to the project’s design.

“We’re hoping that’s the case,” Gibson said.

The Nelson Post tried to reach Eichenberger for comment, but she was not available as of press time.

Nelson-Creston MLA, Michell Mungall has been working with the WKES on the issue and says she’s also hoping for further consultation on the project, and one that’s more “transparent and meaningful” than the previous public consultation in June of 2009.

During the initial public consult in 2009, Mungall and the WKES pushed for a public meeting on the Glacier-Howser project for Nelson, but the EAO and Axor held a meeting in Kaslo – the nearest population centre to the project.

More than 1,000 people turned out and protested angrily against the project at the Kaslo public meeting.

“We want to learn from our experience last summer and we want to see a transparent and meaningful public consultation process,” Mungall said. “The EAO has a responsibility to direct Axor to put forward a process that’s meaningful.”

If another meeting is held, Mungall feels there will once again me “massive public involvement.

“There needs to be massive public involvement,” she said. “This project is going to impact all of us throughout the region. That area is part of our region’s economy, and it’s also one of the reasons why many of us live here. So we’re all stakeholders in this and we need to be involved and have our say. The government needs to be open to hearing it.”

Gibson said the WKES has no predetermined course of action on the project, and they’ll make a decision on that after reading what’s being put forward by the proponent.

“We have to give it a fair read, and from there we’ll ascertain what the strategy is,” Gibson said.

The Nelson Post attempted to contact Axor project coordinator, Simon Gourdeau, but he was out of town on business and could not be reached.

The 100 Megawatt project would see the diversion of  a total of five creeks that run from high in the Purcell Mountains near Meadow Creek into Duncan Lake, as well as about 16 kilometres of 4.5-metre-high tunnels blasted through the mountainsides and about 90 kilometres of power lines that would carry the electricity generated to a substation near Invermere in the East Kootenay.

(Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Axor’s initial application was not rejected by the EAO. The EAO suspended the environmental assessment process and asked Axor to gather more information on potential impacts to the bull trout).

Cody Caves example of poor park management: Mungall

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This man is one of many who enjoyed exploring Cody Caves until the operator went out of business earlier this summer. The shut-down of Cody Caves Provincial Park is an example of the provincial government's poor management of the province's parks system, says Nelson-Creston Michelle Mungall. Photo courtesy of Kevin Stanway.

A new report from B.C.’s auditor general gives a scathing criticism of the province’s handling of the parks system and Nelson-Creston NDP MLA, Michelle Mungall says that’s exemplified in the recent closing of Cody Caves Provincial Park.

The report says the provincial Ministry of Environment is not meeting its stated goal of conserving the ecological integrity of the BC Parks system and has created a poorly-managed, fragmented network of parks that do little to protect plant and animal species in the province.

Key findings in the report include incomplete or dated plans for meeting the stated goal, conservation policies that are inconsistently upheld, little action taken to ensure conservation, and a failure to publicly report on its progress or lack thereof.

In late June, Kevin Stanway, the former operator of Cody Caves Provincial Park near Ainsworth publicly announced that he could no longer afford to manage the park and offer tours of the caves because the business model imposed upon him by BC Parks was unsustainable  due to unreasonably high fees and a poorly-maintained access road.

The ecologically sensitive park is now left without an operator, and Mungall says that’s a prime example of how badly the BC Liberal government manages the provincial park system.

“What’s important here is that the report was specific about the Class A parks,” Mungall noted.  “What we experienced around Cody Caves this summer, which is a Class A park, is an example of what the auditor general found.

“The way Cody Caves was treated and the fee structure put upon it shows the lack of priority that Class A parks have in the Ministry of Environment.”

The report states that Class A parks are  “dedicated to the preservation of their natural environments for the inspiration, use and enjoyment of the public,” but the province doesn’t have enough information about the parks to determine the status of their ecological integrity.

After Kevin Stanway stopped managing Cody Caves Provincial Park earlier this year, the park was left without a caretaker, and the slightest damage to the caves could take thousands of years to restore.

At the time, Mungall wrote a letter to Minister of Environment, Barry Penner to advocate for Stanway and Cody Caves.

She recently got a letter back from Penner which she said “told me nothing and repeated everything I said.”

But included in the letter was some information about the present and future care of Cody Caves.

“At the local level, they’re putting out an expression (of interest) for a new operator,” she said. “The local Ministry of Environment staff have insured that Cody Caves is regularly patrolled. They’ve put in extra security and patrol it regularly so that vandalism doesn’t happen and the caves are maintained.

“But nothing is better than a regular operator who is an expert in caving, which they had and they ran him out of business.”

Mungall also noted that park fees have doubled for parks like Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park, but none of that money is being put back into the maintenance.

“You’re paying more, but you’re getting less,” she said. “That’s the MO for this provincial Liberal government, and that’s what this report shows.”

Mungall said the parks budget has dropped by nearly $7 million from 2008 to 2010. That included the layoffs of 64 full-time equivalent and 10 full-time park rangers in April of 2009.

Environment minister says meeting recommendations costly

In response to the auditor general’s report, Minister of Environment, Barry Penner said implementing all the recommendations would cost $355 million dollars over 10 years, the burden of which would have to be shouldered by the taxpayer.

“That’s a significant amount of money, especially up against other competing demands,” Penner told the Vancouver Sun. “It’s a challenge with a limit on how much taxpayers are willing to spend.

“B.C. has done more than any other province in Canada to protect habitat” – actions that contribute directly to ecological protection.”

The auditor general’s report also notes that the amount of land designated for a parks in the province has grown significantly in recent years, from 9.6 million hectares in 1999, to 13 million hectares in 2010.

A map of the Selkirk Mountain Caribou Park, as proposed by the Valhalla Wilderness Society.

Valhalla Society says parks too small, isolated

“When I read the auditor general’s report and the government’s response, so many issues flew at me that it took me two days to write about it,” said Anne Sherrod of the Valhalla Wilderness Society.

And while Sherrod conceded that the expansion of land base for the parks is significant, she said it seems to be done without rhyme or reason because, as the auditor general pointed out in his report, the parks are too small and fragmented.

“There are too few parks and they’re too far apart,” Sherrod said. “There are all these little specks all over the province . . . The government boasts about all these parks, but the public isn’t getting environmental protection out of these parks because they are too fragmented. It creates an impressive facade.”

Sherrod said that in order to effectively protect wildlife and preserve ecosystems, like the inland temperate rainforest in the West Kootenay, parks need to be significantly larger and encompass connected wildlife corridors and the few remaining stands of old-growth forest in the region.

The Valhalla Wilderness Society is currently pushing a proposal to create a Selkirk Mountain Caribou Park that would do just that.

“It represents exactly what’s missing in the parks in our area,” Sherrod noted. “The parks in our area are woefully lacking in low elevation habitat.”

New resident survey shows largest influx in 10 years

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Nestled in the charming embrace of pristine mountains, rivers and lakes, a recent survey shows Nelson is attracting a high number of new residents - many of whom come for the lifestyle the city offers. Nelson Post file photo.

The results of Nelson’s annual New Resident Survey are in and show the highest number of new migrants to the region in more than a decade.

About 263 families, representing 585 new  people moved to Nelson from various parts of the province, the country and the world between May 31, 2009 and May 31, 2010, a five per cent jump from the previous year and the highest influx recorded since 2000 – when 700 people migrated here.

The survey has been conducted annually by Community Futures for the past 15 years, and is distributed by Nelson’s Welcome Wagon to new residents of the area. The goal of the survey is to gain information that is valuable to local governments, business people and prospective residents of the area.

“We find it’s really good information and it helps businesses know what the demographics look like; what age groups are moving here,” said Community Futures project coordinator, Lisa Cannady. “It’s good for businesses and it helps people know what’s coming up in the region, what people are looking for and what’s lacking and not lacking.”

While people from elsewhere in British Columbia made up the largest block of new Nelson area residents (58 per cent, or 154 families), perhaps the most notable point in this year’s survey is the number of Albertans who relocated to the region – which nearly is nearly double the yearly average.

“We had 55 new families from Alberta this year. That’s quite a jump,” said Lisa Cannady, project coordinator for Community Futures, noting that in an average year 35 new families come from Alberta. “And that’s just families that the Welcome Wagon ladies record. There are definitely more families out there.”

Nelson economist, Mike Stolte said the influx of Albertans is likely due to several factors, including the quality of life here as compared with cities like Calgary or Edmonton, how well-known the area is becoming and a ripple effect amongst friends and families.

“Once you get people moving here from Calgary or Canmore, you inevitably get more, because it’s their friends or families who hear about it through word of mouth,” Stolte noted.

Stolte noted that Albertans have a greater presence in the East Kootenay, which has played a part in making real estate values triple over the past five to seven years. But he said most of the Albertans living in the East Kootenay are second-home-owners and only part time residents of the region.

In the Nelson area, real estate values have doubled in the same stretch and Stolte said many Albertans who move here tend to settle down and live here.

“We’ve always been a bit too far to be a second home place,” Stolte noted. “This also underlines that they’re making a commitment to Nelson, not just buying a second home.”

The majority of the rest who moved to the Nelson area last year were from Canada, but some people also came to the area from outside the country, including Oman and the Cayman Islands.

More young people coming to Queen City

Also of note in the survey is a disproportionate amount of young adults moving into the area. People in the age group of 20 to 44 made up 58 per cent of the total number of new residents in the area last year.

This group represented only a third of the city’s population in the 2006 census. Residents 45 and older made up nearly half the population in 2006, but only represent 20 per cent of the new migrants in this year’s New Resident Survey.

Stolte said he’s pleased to see the rush of young blood into the area, especially given the sometimes daunting prospects for housing and employment.

“I think it’s invigorating for the community to have younger groups moving here,” he said, noting that while it’s often difficult to get a foothold in the community many are managing to pull it off.

“My fear is that Nelson is going to become more expensive and it’s going to be harder each year to get a foothold here. I don’t think it serves anyone’s purposes if people can’t make it here and have to leave. I think it erodes the fabric of the community.”

New residents want more affordable housing

In that vein, many of new residents in the area said they would like to see lower rents and more affordable houses here.

“Every year we ask what they would recommend to make Nelson a better place to live and work,” Cannady said. “One of the biggest responses we got was that we need more affordable housing.”

Nearly half of the 263 families who responded to the survey cited concerns around affordable housing and employment in the area.

One area new residents were torn around was the anti-dog bylaw in Nelson’s downtown area, with nearly a 50/50 split between those in favour of it and those opposed.

More than 75 suggestions were made for new businesses in the city, but a TD Bank and a Tim Hortons topped the list.

Cannady said these two businesses have topped the wish list of new residents for some time now.

Survey the envy of many Canadian communities

Stolte, who heads Nelson’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Leadership (CIEL), travels across the country giving presentations to many communities on economic and community development strategies, says many communities across the country say they’d like to have a similar survey.

“People would love to have something like this in their community, because it does give really good information,” he said. “We’re finding out a whole bunch of things the census doesn’t reveal. And in some ways it’s richer and fresher than the census because the census only comes out every five years, and it takes two years to produce it. So it’s kind of out of date when you get it.”

Stolte said the Welcome Wagon ladies are the key to the success of the local survey.

“They’re great at tracking down people and asking them questions,” he said. “They can track anyone down. If Osama bin Laden was in the area, they’d have him tracked down.”

Neighbours rally around endangered downtown green space

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Neighbours of the Hendryx Street Park gathered last Saturday to brainstorm ideas for cleaning up the derelict park. They're hoping the community will help out by volunteering and contributing donations. Nelson Post photo.

A neighbourhood meeting at the Hendryx Street Park last weekend resulted in plans to band together and try to save the downtown greenspace.

The garden park was established about 10 years ago by Earth Matters with the aim of giving the Queen City’s downtown core a self sustaining green space for community enjoyment and educational purposes,

Earth Matters and a number of local citizens started out strong and turned the blank piece of land (located next door to the former Holy Smoke Culture Shop building at the foot of Hendryx Street) into a low-maintenance, self-sustaining garden filled with fruit and nut trees, herbs and self-sowing plants.

But over the years, as funding from governments and other sources has dried up, the garden has fallen into disrepair because no one has been on the site regularly to do the maintenance needed.

The situation came to a head recently when a local man, described by garden neighbour, Jan Formby as “a colourful sort of guy,” began living in the garden and started taking maintenance into his own hands.

“He started changing the garden,” Formby said. “He cut boughs off the trees and changed some of the entrances.”

She said he also did damage to some of the delicate perennial plants in the garden and began planting vegetables, which is not allowed by law in parks like the Hendryx Street Park.

It was when these two situations came together that neighbours began to make contact with the Nelson Cares Society, which oversees Earth Matters, to see what could be done about the state of the park.

Nelson Cares Society executive director, Rona Park said the society currently leases the land from the City of Nelson, and if the park can’t be cleaned up and viable in the near future, the land will have to be turned back over to the city.

“We have a license to operate the park with the city,” Park said. “We’ve kept it running every year with the hope that we might be able to manage it. But we’re at the point of giving it back to the city because there’s no money and no plans.”

She noted that the park has never had core funding, and has always been operated from grant funding garnered by volunteers with Earth Matters who wanted to create work for themselves.

Neighbours hope community will help

While the prospects for retaining the park might seem dim, the spirit that came out of the meeting on Saturday was that the community must come together to keep the Hendryx Street Park alive.

Formby and other neighbours around the park have plans to come together to clean up the park and help restore it to near its former glory.

They’re also hoping other community members and businesses will come forward and volunteer to help out, or make donations – either in the form of cash or plants.

The group is hoping to come up with enough money, through donations and grants, to pay a gardener to take care of the park during the summer months.

“We’re reconstituting the community around it,” Park said. “That means so much more to me, to pull together and have Earth Matters maintain the contract.”

Formby hopes the garden will not only be cleaned up, but returned to its original glory – to be used by local school groups for educational purposes.

City would consider proposals around park

Nelson city councillor, Deb Kozak was unaware that the park was in trouble and said she hopes Nelson Cares will bring any concerns to the City of Nelson before abandoning it.

“If Nelson Cares would come to council with a proposal, saying this it the work we’ve been doing, then we would consider it,” Kozak said. “If they’re unable to maintain it, I hope they’ll come back to us with some deeper information so we can make a good decision on it.”

She said another option could be for Nelson Cares to partner with a local service organization that could help with the operations, like many other parks in the city.

Kozak could not say what would happen to the land if it were to be transferred back to the city.

To get more information on how you can help with plans to maintain the Hendryx Street Park, contact Rona Park at Nelson Cares by telephone at 250.352.6011.

Chief of Nelson police to retire in early 2011

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After 30 years of policing and nine years at the helm of the Nelson Police Department, Chief Dan Maluta will be retiring as of January, 2011

After 30 years of police work and nearly a decade as Nelson’s top cop Nelson Police Department (NPD) Chief, Dan Maluta has decided to retire in January of 2011.

Maluta came to the NPD in 1990 as a constable after nine years of policing in Vancouver, and climbed the ranks to become NPD chief in 2001.

Retiring at the relatively young age of 51 might seem early, but Maluta said this is  part of a plan he’s had all along.

“Having been in the profession for 30 years, I’ve given it the college try,” Maluta said. “Thirty years at any one thing should be enough and a person should move on to other opportunities.

“I had a plan and I executed the plan. My wife and I have thought about it for some time.”

Maluta says leaving the department now also allows him leave things in good shape for his successor, while also allowing him to exit with a bright legacy.

“I feel firmly in my heart that I’m leaving the department in good shape and I’m at the top of my ability,” he said. “I’d like to have an exit that people can look back fondly on.

“It’d be nice to go out without the moniker that’s assigned to so many people in my profession, like ‘embattled police chief resigns under pressure.’”

When asked what he will miss most about his job, Maluta said it’s the people he works with; both police and civilian.

“I really enjoy being around them,” he noted. “We have an excellent crew here of very big-hearted men and women. I don’t think the public always realizes how much they care about the community . . . They really do care and that part inspires me.”

What Maluta won’t miss upon his retirement is the tragedies and sadness that inevitably accompany police work.

“Although we do have good news stories and from time to time we’re in a helping position, we’re mostly in the negative business,” he said. “We typically deal with people at their worst and most tragic. That sort of thing hasn’t been easy.”

He added that policing a diverse community like Nelson has had its share of challenges, as well.

“It’s been challenging politically, because Nelson is such a political community,” he said. “We deal with challenges like the war resister arrests and the ongoing battle with the harm reductionists and the pro-marijuana lobbyists.”

Mayor of Nelson, John Dooley, who also chairs the police board that oversees the NPD said Maluta will be missed.

“We’re going to miss him,” Dooley said. “He’s given great service to the Nelson police force and the community in general for the years he’s been with us.

“But he’s decided to retire and he’s given us six months lead time. We’re going to have to start strategizing as to how we’re going to replace him.”

Dooley said there’s no specific process in place to find a new chief, but he said a search within the NPD ranks would be less expensive and faster than an external search.

As for his plans beyond retirement, Maluta, a Trail native, says he’s planning to stay “firmly” in Nelson and go to work for his wife.

“My wife wants me to build her a house,” he said. “That’s in the immediate future.”

Fat Tire Fest rolls on in 2010

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This past weekend, for the 15th year in a row, members of the Nelson mountain bike community gathered to celebrate their sport and have some fun at the 2010 Fat Tire Festival.

Along with the traditional mountain bike races and parade down Baker Street, this year’s event also highlighted the new mountain bike park located in Art Gibbon Memorial Park with a dirt jump jam and cross country races for children – as well as bike polo and pre-race yoga.

“I think overall it was a big success,” said Kathryn Gardener, spokesperson for the Nelson Cycling Club, which organizes the event. “We had lots of excited happy people there as participants and tonnes of participation from the community, as far as volunteers and sponsors go. There were smiles all around.

“We had a total of 125 participants over the weekend and 67 of them were eight years-old and under. So there’s our next generation of mountain bikers.”

Results from the event will be available later today on the Nelson Cycling Club’s website.

The Nelson Post was on the scene to capture some of the fun and action over the course of the weekend. Here are some images from the event, and more can be found on The Nelson Post‘s Facebook page.

While registration was low for the Fat Tire Fest Dirt Jump Jam, some local youth took the chance to show off their stuff for the people gathered at the event in Art Gibbon Memorial Park

This local youth added some challenge to the dirt jump track by tackling it on a bike that's much too small.

Dozens of local youth and their parents turned out for the annual bike parade down Baker Street. Afterward the Criterium races were held in the 300 block of the downtown core.

This young rider was competing on the same course as the seasoned veterans and older riders at the Morning Mountain races.

Some racers added style to their speedy runs on the downhill course by pulling tricks over the jumps.

Nelson area spared from wildfires, smoke

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Wildfires like this 450 hectare fire burning west of Quesnel have been burning throughout the northern part of British Columbia; filling the skies with smoke and ash. But the West Kootenay has seen little fire activity, due largely to the abundant rain that has come with lightning activity in the region. Photo courtesy of the BC Ministry of Forests Wildlife Management Branch

While wildfires rage through thousands of square kilometres of forest in British Columbia’s Northern Interior, the West Kootenay region has been largely spared of wildfires so far this summer.

Nearly 300 forest fires are currently burning across the province, but just 11 of those are burning in the Southeast Fire Centre – which covers the area stretching from the Canada-U.S. border in the south to Mica Dam, near Revelstoke in the north, and from the Monashee Mountains in the West to the B.C.-Alberta border in the east.

Suzanne von der Porten, fire information officer for the Southeast Fire Centre in Castlegar said none of these fires is anywhere near Nelson, and they are all small fires, no bigger than one hectare (10,000 square metres) in size.

The only nearby fire to date was the Perry’s Ridge fire in the Slocan Valley, which was extinguished before it grew beyond one hectare.

She said seven of these fires were caused by lightning, and it has been the abundance of rain accompanying lightning activity in the region that has drastically reduced the number of wildfires in the West Kootenay region this year.

“There has been a total of 202 wildfires to date so far in 2010,” von der Porten noted. “At this point in 2009 we had 387 total fires. So we’ve had approximately half the fire activity as we did before.”

In addition to the favourable weather, von der Porten said fire crews in the region have had a high success rate in extinguishing any fires that did spark up.

Danger of fires still present

While the area may have fared well so far, fire danger ratings remain in the moderate to high range and the peak of wildfire season has not yet passed.

“We are prepared for an increase in fire activity,” von der Porten said, noting that many crews from the region are fighting the fires in northern B.C., but plenty of resources remain to tackle anything that might start here.

She added that any wildfires that do start in the coming days will be easier to extinguish due to the shorter days and longer, cooler nights, which give fire fighters more “recovery time” when tackling fires and create more moisture to dampen the fires.

While some lightning is expected this weekend, rain, winds and cooler temperatures are likely to come with it, lessening the chances of wildfires, von der Porten noted.

West Kootenay smoke free, so far

Smoke from the wildfires is causing poor air quality and a raft of health issues throughout Northern B.C. and into Alberta, but the West Kootenay has thus far also been spared from smoky skies.

Predominantly easterly winds have been pushing the smoke toward Alberta, von der Porten said.

The only areas in the Kootenays affected by the smoke are around Golden and Revelstoke, but the Ministry of Environment recently lifted an air quality advisory for those communities.

Fire officials urge caution with fires

As always, the Southeast Fire Centre is cautioning people to be careful with their campfires and report any suspected wildfires.

Earlier this year the province instituted new regulations around campfires that include fines up to $345 for violations, and anyone found liable for starting a wildfire through arson or recklessness can be fined up to $1 million or given up to three years in prison.

To report a suspected wildfire, phone 1-800-663-5555 or *5555 from a cellular phone. To get more information on wildfire safety and current wildfire conditions, visit www.bcwildfire.ca/

Nelson’s heritage buildings make fire protection challenging

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Simon Grypma, chief of the Nelson Fire and Rescue Services, holds two smoke alarms. The one on the left didn't have a battery and three people died in a fire. The one on the right had a battery and its alarm saved a life. Photo by Chris Shepherd.

The rotting food was finally removed from the Redfish Grill patio and investigators continue to sift through the blackened debris and while the fire chiefs knows it wasn’t set deliberately, he says the historic nature of the building played a huge role in the fire’s destructiveness and similar risks abound across Nelson.

Nelson is the rightful title-holder of B.C.’s heritage city, says Simon Grypma, chief of the Nelson Fire and Rescue Services. While that heritage looks good walking along Baker Street, it poses major challenges for his department as they try to make century old buildings safe.

“We have well over 300 buildings that are heritage status and that were built prior to stringent building codes.”

That means behind the beautiful brick and wood, there are easy paths for fire to make its way through the structure.

The fire that gutted the Redfish Grill building at 479 Baker St. was so destructive because of the building’s age. Built in 1921, the building lacked the necessary fire separations in the crawl space in the roof.

A number of issues make Nelson’s downtown dangerous, from a fire fighting perspective. The big problem is the number of renovations that are often done in buildings. They can lead to:

  • Breached fire separations
  • Improper wiring
  • Improvements where a new floor is put on an earlier one or a new ceiling is put below the previous one.

After the Redfish Grill fire, rumours started running around Nelson that the fire department had started cracking down on building owners, making them comply with orders.

In the alleys of downtown Nelson there were large trailers full of cardboard and wood waste seen and one renter told The Nelson Post their landlord had taken several trailer loads away already.

“We’re not cracking down, so to speak, on all the buildings,” Grypma says. “But one thing we are doing is when we do our fire inspection we are stressing the need for a good recycling program and to reduce the amount of combustibles on a regular basis in every commercial building.”

Keep an ‘angel’ in your house

Key to fighting fires and saving lives, Grypma says, are functioning smoke alarms. The fire chief has a box full of fire-damaged smoke detectors. He can tell you which fire each is from.

Grypma points to one that’s melted, but still has its shape. Looking at the way it has melted reveals there was no battery in the smoke detector.

“This one here,” he says, pointing at it,” three people died.

“This one here saved a life,” Grypma adds, pointing to a smoke detector  was so melted by heat it looks like a puddle. For all the destruction, it’s clear where the battery was, the battery that sounded and saved the life of a young boy from a fire at Nelson’s golf course.

He calls it Michael the Archangel.

Grypma recommends people take the time to put their smoke alarms in the right place and says firefighters will gladly visit people’s homes to help them determine where is the best place to put one. The fire hall can be reached at (250) 352-3103.