Expert questions whether Lower Mainland's forest-edge towns are ready as fire nears Pemberton

Smoke from an out-of-control wildfire could be seen behind properties on Dowad Drive in Squamish on June 9, 2025. The wildfire broke out east of Highway 99 between Dowad Drive and Depot Road. Photo by Photo credit: Marco Tancinco

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As a fast-growing fire near Pemberton forced an evacuation order and alerts Thursday, a veteran fire ecologist questioned whether the region’s forest-edge communities are as ready as officials say.

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The Signal Hill fire, discovered south of Pemberton on Wednesday, had grown to 38 hectares by late Thursday morning and remained out of control, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service’s website. Two evacuation alerts and one evacuation order were in place as of 3:03 p.m., with the fire burning about five kilometres from Highway 99. Human activity is the suspected cause of the fire.

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Conditions are expected to worsen.

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Fire danger on the South Coast and North Shore is rated moderate to high, said Olivia Fenton, an information assistant with the Coastal Fire Centre, and it could climb next week as an upper-atmosphere system draws subtropical moisture over the coast, raising the risk of lightning with little rain.

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The centre reinstated a ban on campfires across most of its territory, including the North Shore and Sea to Sky, at noon Thursday.

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The Signal Hill fire sits in the Sea to Sky corridor north of Squamish and Whistler, in the kind of wildland-urban interface — where homes back onto forest — that communities around Metro Vancouver work year-round to guard against.

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Robert Gray, a Chilliwack-based fire ecologist with four decades in the field, said that preparation often falls short because it’s done at too small a scale.

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Municipalities point to FireSmart programs — assessments that urge homeowners to clear brush, screen vents and strip flammable material from around a house to create “defensible space” — and to fuel treatments, the thinning of dense stands of trees and removal of dead wood that can carry a fire.

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Gray said both work only when carried out across whole neighbourhoods and the land around them.

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“You can do everything that’s required and you can still lose your home,” he said, if neighbouring properties and the forest beyond go untreated. Fuel treatments, he said, must match the scale of the fire they’re meant to stop.

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Most municipalities in the region have adopted a community wildfire resiliency plan — a document, often tied to provincial grant money, that is meant to map a community’s wildfire risk and set out concrete steps to reduce it.

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Coquitlam’s plan has 43 recommendations; Squamish drew up 16 after reviewing a fire near the town last year.

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Speaking of such plans in general, Gray said they too often “sit on the shelf,” satisfying government funding requirements while doing little to guide actual firefighting or prevention on the ground.

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Coquitlam pushed back. In a statement, Fire Chief Scott Young said Coquitlam is making steady progress on its 43 recommendations, has completed fuel-treatment prescriptions for its high-risk areas and is hiring contractors to treat its three highest-priority zones by spring 2027.