National fire plan needed

Photo: Flickr/BC gov't

B.C. Premier Christy Clark says climate change is leading to more wildfires and the country needs a national forest firefighting strategy.

Clark tells The Canadian Press her province has a lot of experience in the labour-intensive job of clearing flammable debris on the forest floor, but that more intensive predictive work is needed at a national level to pinpoint where fires are likely to occur.

About 80 wildfires are currently burning in B.C., many of them east of the Rocky Mountains and essentially part of the same fire system that has consumed hundreds of thousands of hectares around Fort McMurray, Alta.

Clark says a national plan is needed to pool firefighting resources — work that is already underway.

But the premier says what's really needed is a common national effort against climate change.

Clark says dry forests and longer fire seasons mean the problem of fire damage is only getting to get worse and she attributes both to a changing global climate.