One year ago, the Central Okanagan went through an unprecedented time as the Grouse Complex of wildfires took over as people had to evacuate, businesses had to close down, and structures were lost.
It was an incredibly difficult time and the effects can still be felt, but according to West Kelowna fire Chief Jason Brolund, a lot was learned from the experience.
"It's been a very different year," said Brolund. "We certainly put in an immense amount of effort planning and preparing for a wildfire, in terms of our training and our equipment and our people, but what I didn't anticipate at times from the wildfire was the aftermath and what [this] year afterwards would look like."
And for Brolund, there has been an endless amount of chances to discuss the wildfires and his and the fire crew's experience to people all across the country.
"There's been so many opportunities, as it turns out, to talk about what happened to us and share our story and our lessons learned," said Brolund, who added he's been getting multiple requests every week. "I'm very passionate about trying to share our lessons learned with people who can benefit from them. I've spoken with fire chiefs across the province and across the country.
"There's a lot of things I wish someone would've shared with me and I'm being given the opportunity to do that." he added. "These are all things we would've never been able to do if it wasn't for the fire, and the fire was awful, but we've also found some positive in it."
And it hasn't just been across the country as Brolund got the chance to speak in front of the United Nations about the 2023 wildfires, as well as Hockey Night in Canada. He and the West Kelowna Fire Hall have had visitors as well, such as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes and team president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford.
In all these visits and speeches, Brolund continuously shares the message of FireSmart and scientific work being done to explain what causes home loss in wildfires and additional efforts on how to prevent it.
Even though it's now been a year since the fires started, it still feels like yesterday to Brolund. And according to him, lots of great work has been done but there's still a long way to go.
"It's surreal thinking here we are again at the same time of year and it feels like there's still a lot to be done following that event, let alone when we experience another one," said Brolund. "A lot of the things that we learned led to actions we want to take or things that we want to change and one year isn't necessarily enough to do that, some of these changes we want to make or projects we want to take on are multiple year projects, so we're going to be doing some things for years to come."
In this last year, Brolund has learned that relationships and communication are key factors when an event like the Grouse Complex strikes because of how many people have to come together and work together.
Sometimes it doesn't seem like the most efficient use of time going for coffee with someone, but it really turns out to be when you actually need them, said Brolund, who added "reinforcing relationships has been huge."
"We learned the value of communication," said Brolund, who would share daily updates to the public via livestream nearly everyday during the Grouse Complex. "We knew that was important before but that event really underscored it,"
Despite its tragic events, the experience gained is a key factor when it comes to future fires.
"If it happens again, we now have all that experience to build off of," said Brolund. "We will go out and we will do all the same things plus the lessons learned for the next wildfire. I can't predict what the result will be or what the outcome will look like because it is driven by factors we don't control like the weather and ever-changing climate, but we certainly recognize this isn't going to be the last major wildfire of any of our careers. We need to learn to live with this and it's a tough job, but work hard to try and make this more of the regular operation,"
All these factors he's shared with mayors, premiers, fire chiefs, city managers, task forces and more.
"They said in '03 that was a 1-in-100 year fire and we'd never see another one in our careers like it and 20 years later, we did," added Brolund. "Unfortunately, we will see one of these and not to be doom and gloom for West Kelowna, it might not be here but it will likely be somewhere in proximity where we will all be called upon to help, just like all of the help came here."
At every event or speech Brolund has made, he brings up FireSmart, which is a tool anyone has access to to educate themselves about fire safety in their home, when building a home, or what to do in many other situations.
On top of the whirlwind the last year has been for Brolund, he's thankful for so many people.
"We wouldn't have had the success we did with the wildfire, and it's hard to call it a success when many people lost their homes and we still think about those people, our heart goes out to them but we wouldn't have had the outcome we did if it wasn't for all the hard work by not just firefighters, and not just firefighters from West Kelowna but firefighters across the province, the wildfire service, the RCMP, everyone who came to our aid."
"As I look back a year, I'm just so grateful."
