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A historic African Nova Scotian community is receiving provincial funding to reduce its wildfire risk, in a bid to help preserve the area’s heritage.
“What is being protected here is not only housing, it is 211 years of community,” said Hammonds Plains-Lucasville MLA Rick Burns on Friday.
Burns announced the province is committing $199,000 from its Sustainable Communities Challenge Fund to support the Upper Hammonds Plains Community Land Trust.
The trust is working on wildfire risk assessment and mitigation plans to protect individual properties and shared assets, including 85 historic homes, a church and community buildings.
“(It) just shows the reflection of the community at large, both here in Upper Hammonds Plains and throughout Hammonds Plains, to become a fire safe community and to build resilience locally,” said Burns.
Since the Tantallon wildfire that destroyed 151 homes and temporarily displaced 16,000 people in 2023, the trust has been looking at ways to reduce the wildfire risk in the Upper Hammonds Plains area.
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“We were trying to figure out what can we do right now to ease people’s minds, right?” said Curtis Whiley, the trust’s founder and CEO.
“So we started to try to figure out how can we can do some education with folks to understand what they can do around their own homes.”
The trust is part of a national program called FireSmart Canada, which provides recommendations that help homeowners and communities prepare for wildfires. The provincial funding will help the community with initiatives such as home assessments, community clean-ups and remediation.
Assistant Fire Chief Richard Hayes with Halifax Fire says some of this work could include assessing properties and making sure anything flammable is kept away from structures.
“Looking at the tree areas surrounding your property and looking at what can burn and bring that fire close, that’s what we concentrate on,” he said.
“So right around the home, just making sure that there’s no combustibles.”
A Halifax Regional Municipality staff report released in July listed Upper Hammonds Plains as the third-worst community when it comes to egress issues.
The report ranked the top 100 worst communities across the municipality.
Residents have been outspoken about the community’s safety concerns, especially with a growing population and developments in the neighbourhood.
He says the land trust has had productive discussions with all levels of government on improving the situation, and believes this latest investment is a positive step toward preserving the heritage of the area.
“Partners are coming together to the table to really address all of these concerns, including water infrastructure (…) emergency egress and even community connectivity, which is what we’re really advocating for,” he said.
“(It’s) going to require significant investment, right, once these studies are all completed.”
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