{"id":7274,"date":"2024-05-08T10:00:25","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=7274"},"modified":"2024-05-08T10:00:25","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T13:00:25","slug":"queens-county-residents-get-tips-on-protecting-homes-from-wildfire-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/05\/08\/queens-county-residents-get-tips-on-protecting-homes-from-wildfire-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens County residents get tips on protecting homes from wildfire risk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Barb Hill-Taylor of East Port L’Hebert was at a community wildfire preparedness day on Tuesday, organized by Parks Canada. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

When last spring\u2019s wildfires were consuming thousands of hectares around Barrington in southwestern Nova Scotia, Barb Hill-Taylor was about 90 kilometres away at her home in East Port L\u2019Hebert.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have only one exit from our peninsula,” she said Tuesday, “and I was concerned about that and also the closeness of the Barrington fire, you could see the plume.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The fires didn\u2019t get close enough to threaten Hill-Taylor\u2019s house, but they still left a lasting impression. Even though her house is made of concrete with a metal roof, she was still concerned enough that after it was all over, she and her neighbours asked the province\u2019s wildfire prevention officer to visit their area. The officer gave her and her neighbours tips on how to make their properties more wildfire resilient.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great. I learned a lot. We spent about two hours driving around the peninsulas and she would point out things that were issues for people to look at. It was a really worthwhile exercise. The snag is that people have to act on the recommendations now and cut trees. It\u2019s difficult because you spend a lot of time doing your landscaping.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hill-Taylor was one of the local residents at Kejimkujik National Park Seaside in Port Joli on Tuesday for a wildfire community preparedness day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Organized by Parks Canada, Tuesday\u2019s event also included officials from Nova Scotia\u2019s Department of Natural Resources and Renewables and the Liverpool Fire Department.<\/span><\/p>\n

They were there to educate people on how to make their property a little safer from fires. Parks Canada officials also laid out many of the measures they have taken at the park to help mitigate the spread of wildfires, which mirrored the things people can do on their own properties.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fires that started in the Barrington Lake area last May eventually burned more than 23,000 hectares. So far this year, Nova Scotia crews have responded to 27 wildfires around the province.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cory Isenor, a forestry resource technician with the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, says it’s a lot about common sense.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s looking at the stuff around your home and trying to eliminate anything that could catch fire.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Isenor advises homeowners to keep grass trimmed and short around your foundations, clean up any brush or leaves from around your home, make sure your decks, patios, gutters and roof are free of leaf and yard waste, and cut back any trees, especially if they\u2019re evergreens, from around your home. He said it\u2019s also important to make sure stacks of firewood are stored as far away from your house as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Officials discussed which building materials are more prone to igniting in case of an outdoor fire. Metal roofing and concrete structures are best. But using non-combustible and fire-rated products can also help.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe big thing is the distances from the combustible materials around your home,” Isenor said in an interview. “And the biggest thing is what we call the intermediate zone which is touching your house, a couple of metres right around your home, that you may have flower beds or dried wood, fences, anything that could catch and then transfer that over to your home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to try to remove any combustible material in that immediate zone: birch bark mulch, firewood piles. Decks are always an area of concern.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And Isenor said it\u2019s also important, in the event of a wildfire, for people to be ready to shelter in place for 72 hours or to evacuate immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n

Local resident Nancy Perry said she and her husband already cut back many of the trees on their property after last year’s fires. But she said she came to the event to be better prepared, just in case.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was just interested to find out how we could make some changes at our property to be a little safer if we ever get another fire.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The wildfire preparedness day was part of FireSmart Canada\u2019s National Wildfire Community Preparedness Day, which was observed on Saturday. Parks Canada officials recommended on Tuesday that people check out the FireSmart Canada website<\/a> for more tips and a self-assessment of how to protect your home.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to an audio version of the story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/firesafetystorymay724.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When last spring\u2019s wildfires were consuming thousands of hectares around Barrington in southwestern Nova Scotia, Barb Hill-Taylor was about 90 kilometres away at her home in East Port L\u2019Hebert. \u201cWe have only one exit from our peninsula,” she said Tuesday, “and I was concerned about that and also the closeness of the Barrington fire, you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[2141,1635,2145,2142,630,2144,2140,2146,2143,136,1355,2139,1629],"class_list":["post-7274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-barb-hill-taylor","tag-barrington","tag-barrington-lake-wildfire","tag-cory-isenor","tag-department-of-natural-resources-and-renewables","tag-east-port-lhebert","tag-fire-safety","tag-kejimkujik-national-park-seaside","tag-nancy-perry","tag-parks-canada","tag-port-joli","tag-wildfire-preparedness","tag-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7274"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7277,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7274\/revisions\/7277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}