Photo: Castanet

Crews work to remove a cedar from the front yard of a home in North Kamloops.

City of Kamloops staff say a FireSmart program offering incentives for residents to remove hazardous vegetation like junipers and cedars had such a large and immediate uptake, the initiative had to be paused to allow staff to catch up.

The community fuel reduction incentive program was launched on April 22, offering local homeowners up to $800 if they signed up for a free FireSmart assessment and agreed to remove hazardous cedar and juniper vegetation near their homes.

During Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting, Ty Helgason, City of Kamloops emergency preparedness manager, said it took only three days for the city to receive 200 FireSmart home assessment requests.

By comparison, Kamloops Fire Rescue completed a total of 208 assessments throughout the entirety of 2024 — which was an increase over previous years.

“We have needed to temporarily pause the program, as there are only three people in the city that can do these assessments and we need to clear that backlog, as well as ensure that we do not overcommit with our $80,000 budget,” Helgason said.

He said as of April 29, FireSmart assessors had completed 50 assessments. Of those 50, 21 property owners have agreed to remove hazardous vegetation.

Too much demand

Coun. Kelly Hall asked what will happen to the leftover funds if the program's $80,000 budget is not used up.

Helgason said that wasn't a concern.

"At the moment, we have the opposite concern — that we will be maxed out by June," Helgason said.

Coun. Stephen Karpuk asked if staff had thought about strategically allocating funds to areas of the city at highest risk for an interface fire.

Helgason noted this initiative is running as a pilot, and if staff identify areas of improvement, they could make those changes in future years. However, he said hazardous vegetation presents a threat no matter where a home is situated.

"The thought for this year was that hazardous fuel within that five-metre zone of a home represents a threat regardless of where you are in the community," he said.