B.C. sees thousands of wildfire evacuees every year. But are people moving permanently?

CBC

2 days ago

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Michelle Feist never anticipated she would leave Lytton when she moved to the small Interior B.C. village in 2016. For her, it was a fresh start after her husband passed away.
But after a wildfire tore through and destroyed most of the community in 2021, she couldn't bear to return.
"The consequences are lasting. I will never be as I was before the fire," said Feist.
Some residents of Lytton are rebuilding four years after the fire.
Others, like Feist, have chosen to relocate.
Feist initially moved to Williams Lake in the aftermath of the blaze. But she soon realized she was not free from the fire and smoke — and the anxiety— that were present every summer she lived there.
"It changes you."
Feist, a lover of the outdoors, started to dread the upcoming spring and summer seasons. In February of this year she made the difficult choice to move to a condo in Parksville, on Vancouver Island.
"I just looked at the situation and thought, I don't know if I could do this indefinitely," she said.
Although she misses living in a house, being surrounded by nature and having a garden, she does not regret her decision.
"It's nice to be able to see and breathe, and I'm not dreading the season," Feist said.
"Some disaster could hit it but it's probably not going to be a wildfire ... I feel safer."
'Difficult decisions'
Feist isn't alone. She says many of her former Lytton neighbours have made the same decision, some even moving out of province.
It's a dilemma that those in wildfire-prone communities are increasingly faced with, says Sarah Kamal, who researches disaster displacement at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
"The vulnerability is very real and these communities are having to make some difficult decisions," she said.
Kamal says the question for many communities that are often threatened by fire, is whether they have the resources to make infrastructure investments as well as respond to disasters.
"Often these disasters cascade one after the other," said Kamal. "You really have to know you have ... those resources to respond in time."
Firefighting in small and remote communities can be particularly challenging and expensive.
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Kamal says due to geography and limited resources, among other factors, it's not always possible to future-proof a community.
She says that reality is difficult, especially for Indigenous communities that have deep connections to the land.
"If you do leave, you're leaving many, many things, traditional ways of life, community, and so on. There's heartache in so many cases."
Displacement unknown
Over 7,000 residents were temporarily evacuated from their homes in the province during the 2024 wildfire season, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service. That number was in the tens of thousands during the 2023 fire season.
And wildfires in the province are only expected to get worse.
But the number of people who move away long term due to wildfire risk is difficult to track, says Barbara Roden, mayor of Ashcroft and chair of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District — an area that has seen numerous evacuation orders and alerts in the past decade.
"People have lots of different reasons for moving into and out of an area."
In recent years, though, she's had more people who are moving to Ashcroft ask her about the wildfire risk and what they need to know.
"That is something that I definitely have seen over the last few years that was [previously] not a factor," said Roden.
"It's something that has to be in the back of our minds."
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In 2021, the B.C. Wildfire Service conducted a strategic threat analysis to map out areas of high wildfire risk in the province, and provide local governments, residents and other stakeholders with a tool to assess what steps need to be taken.
The threat overview showed much of the province is either under extreme or high threat of wildfire.
Roden says it is up to municipalities to proactively create evacuation plans, fire smart their communities, encourage people to fire smart their own properties, and keep residents informed.
"They're there to be that steady voice of reassurance at a very scary time."
Farrukh Chishtie, a scientist with the climate migration research group at UBC, says not enough research has been done to look at those who have relocated permanently due to wildfires.
He says climate migration is happening in B.C., but the extent is unknown.
"Where are they going to, and what type of struggles are they facing? We have no data," he said.
The B.C. Wildfire Service confirmed to CBC News the province does not track wildfire migration.
Feist says she feels lucky to have been able to move, as some do not have that option. And she recognizes many people choose to stay in their community.
Although she is happy where she is, she says hardly a day goes by where she doesn't think about fire.