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It’s Time to Think FireSmart!

Apr 29, 2025

April 2025

It's Time to Think FireSmart

For those who were unable to make the FireSmart community event on Friday, March 14th, the following summarizes what you missed!

It was the community’s first opportunity to meet Nathan Betz, the newly appointed RDNO FireSmart coordinator. We also had representatives from the contracting company performing the wildfire risk mitigation work on Silver Star Road and a representative from the insurance industry.  

The background to the event was the recent fires in California that wiped out whole neighborhoods and the recent wildfire that caused massive damage in Jasper and came within a few hundred metres of Marmot Ski Resort. We have made a good start on our Silver Star Community FireSmart activities and our FireSmart committee continues to work hard on motivating our private property owners to “Do Their Part” and clean up their properties.  

We have much more to do and we need your support!  

To that end, June 14-21 will be the time period we consolidate the yard debris you will be cleaning up on your property, and get it ready for the day of chipping on June 21.   This will be a work- filled week culminating with a very long day of chipping.  Watch for up-to-date mapping of our community and where we have been successful and where we have work to do.  As well as FireSmarting your property, we encourage everyone to install a roof top sprinkler.

The FireSmart committee will be working in the spring to identify bylaw-compliant roof top sprinkler installation contractors as well as contractors who can FireSmart your property, even if you are not here.

Watch out for further developments on these important initiatives in the coming weeks and months.

FireSmarting Silver Star Road

Guest Speaker:  Marnie Cuthill              Company : Ryder Ventures  

  •  Slash piles will be burned, weather permitting. There is a complex process to get a burn permit and to execute that fully. 
  • Province recognizes this and has now approved a chip and spread approach to rendering down the existing slash piles around The Knoll and now Silver Star Road. We should expect to see both burning and chipping happening now and throughout the summer.

 
Home Insurance Overview
 
Guest Speaker: Alicia Dennison.                   Company: Acera Insurance

  • Insurance companies are being more selective on what risks they are taking on in BC, due to elevated wildfire risk. This is particularly true for some areas of West Kelowna.
  • Insurance companies are seeing Silver Star as an elevated risk because it has not had a wild fire yet! That tells us that insurance actuaries are taking a “when” and not “if” approach to wild fire in our community.
  • Insurance is regulated in BC so the industry will move in such a way to remain compliant with regulations. We are likely to see insurers taking the same attitude to wildfire as they do to earthquakes on the coast. A significantly larger deductible will be in place if wildfire insurance is available.  
  • Where practicable, ensure your renewal date is outside of fire season. Particularly relevant for new builds.
  • Some insurers view FireSmart good practice as a prerequisite for insurance - not a reason for a discount.
  • A more organized approach to insurers looking at the level of FireSmart activity is likely in the future.  This means not only your property but your neighbour’s!

 
FireSmart 
 
Name: Nathan Betz     Company: RDNO FireSmart Coordinator. 
 
Link to RDNO FireSmart site:  https://www.rdno.ca/firesmart

  •  Nathan’s position is grant funded for two years. We will make the most of having this RDNO resource.
  • Nathan brings significant practical first-hand experience of fighting both wildfires and structural protection.
  • We have had success with grant funding for our own community chipping programme via Nathan already. 

 Everyone - do your part to FireSmart!