It’s hard to get a strata to agree on much, but Witherby Point Estates could agree on FireSmart.
The neighbourhood, seven kilometres up the Port Mellon Highway and outside of the West Howe Sound Fire Protection District, was the second Sunshine Coast community to receive “FireSmart Canada Recognized Neighbourhood Program” status. It’s a status that’s growing on the Sunshine Coast, with 13 communities now recognized under the national program. (That’s not to mention the 30-odd stratas and communities that had Community Wildfire Hazard Risk Assessments on the Coast last year alone.)
Residents of Witherby Point Estates gathered in early March to celebrate their accomplishment with a photo op.
What makes this a FireSmart neighbourhood? “It’s through that recognition program –– they are doing things to make themselves more resilient,” said FireSmart coordinator for the Sunshine Coast Regional District, David McIlwraith.
It's a process to be recognized as a FireSmart community –– first needed is a champion, then a committee is struck, and a community wildfire risk assessment must be completed (done for free by McIlwraith’s team), and from there they form an action plan. This includes physical work as well as awareness work among residents. “The individuals are doing things, but as a team, as a unit, as a strata, they’re all coming together and doing things,” said McIlwraith. “All of the residents in this area are doing things like making sure that the roof is kept clean, that their gutters are kept clean, and that they are also removing anything within the immediate zone, which is 1.5 metres [around their home].”
There's ongoing reporting and the FireSmart recognition is renewed annually.
“When the FireSmart program rolled out, they immediately jumped on it,” said strata manager Gloria Alcock-Collins.
“Everybody wants to get on board. Everybody's involved,” said neighbourhood “champion” for the program Brian Gauthier. “Everybody does what they can do. There's nobody that said, ‘No, I don't want an assessment.’”
Only 12 of the neighbourhood’s 21 properties have homes on them –– and some of those are under construction. In several cases, McIlwraith and his team conducted bare-land assessments. “The cool thing about bare land, where we actually take a look prior to building or during construction, is that we can actually lead them forward on the best things to do around the structures, and also make recommendations as to the type of building material to utilize,” said McIlwraith.
While FireSmart assessments are free, residents volunteered time and labour, the strata put up some cash and FireSmart provided a grant, which was put toward debris removal work.
“Our goal in the first year was to go in 10 to 20 feet off the road, so flicked cigarette butts, broken glass, that kind of thing,” said Gauthier. “We dragged stuff up onto the road, and then we hired a chipper truck and he came in, took three truckloads away, chipped it and hauled it away.”
Achieving FireSmart status can have insurance benefits for neighbourhoods. One strata that did an assessment got a 10 per cent reduction on their insurance, just from notifying their broker said McIlwraith. An individual homeowner at another community that has been recognized as a FireSmart community received a $100 rebate on their insurance and should they complete all the work recommended, they’re to get another five per cent discount, said McIlwraith.
For Witherby Point Estates, they’re still working on what the insurance benefits may be. “I'm thinking that we might not get a rebate, but we might not get an increase that we would have got,” said Gauthier.
“We need to be proactive, this was a record wildfire year and the season just seems to be starting earlier and lasting longer,” said McIlwraith. “We need to find a way to get ahead of this and FireSmart is one of the ways we can start to mitigate the effects of these ongoing wildfire seasons."
Find more FireSmart information at scrd.ca/firesmart.
