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“I’m not leaving,” said Ira Robinson, who lives in Clinton, B.C.
As wildfires continue to burn across Canada, residents say they will stay to defend their homes, while John Gradek, a McGill University lecturer who has studied Canada’s wildfire response, says the country needs to rethink how it prepares for increasingly intense fire seasons.
“The old strategies that we used to have 15 or 20 or 30 years ago just don’t cut it,” he said.
There are now approximately 193 properties on evacuation order and 104 properties on evacuation alert due to the Fiftynine Creek wildfire in the Thompson Nicola Regional District.
The Village of Clinton issued an evacuation order for all properties within its boundaries Friday.
Robinson said if flames reach his community, he and others will use whatever equipment they have to protect their properties.
“Whether it’s a bulldozer, whether it’s an excavator, whether it is a grader, whether it’s a tractor with a bucket on it, we’ll fight it,” he said.
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Resident Herbie Kennedy, described the situation as “a little unnerving,” while Lee Longtree said he plans to leave early because his wife has dementia and the smoke is becoming too dangerous.
Gradek said the number and intensity of fires, including those near Boston Bar, B.C., show how rapidly conditions can change and are becoming “the new normal” as climate change creates hotter, drier conditions.
He said the biggest concern is not the amount of land burned, but how quickly fires are growing.
Gradek argues Canada has become too focused on responding after communities are threatened rather than stopping fires before they reach homes.
“Our strategy for firefighting is evacuation,” he said.
Instead, Gradek said governments should develop a long-term national wildfire strategy that determines how many aircraft, helicopters and firefighters are needed, where they should be positioned and how they can respond more quickly as fires ignite.
Gradek said provinces often react only after fires become emergencies, leaving communities scrambling to evacuate rather than containing fires earlier.
He added that Canada lacks a coordinated national approach to wildfire planning.
The fires come in a season after Ontario reduced its emergency forest firefighting budget to $150 million for 2026-27 after spending $271 million the previous year.
Gradek also said Indigenous communities should receive more support to carry out forest management practices, including prescribed burns, which he said have helped reduce wildfire risk for generations.
“Let them be the keepers of the boreal forest,” Gradek said. “I bet you we’d have a better season.”
– With files from Amy Judd, Global News
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