FILE PHOTO - A home lost to the McDougall Creek wildfire.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Heather Reis

Now that the McDougall Creek wildfire is basically out, West Kelowna city councillor Rick de Jong says it’s time to move quickly to review what went right and what went wrong with the region’s emergency response.

“I think everybody can acknowledge that the emergency support services in West Kelowna could have functioned way better than it did,” he told iNFOnews.ca.

“I talked to people that ended up sleeping in their cars three or four days waiting to get registered. I talked to somebody two weeks ago. It took her eight days to get registered. That is not what I call looking after the residents through the emergency support services so we’ve got to figure out what went right with that and what needs to change for the next time around.”

He was evacuated during the Glenrosa wildfire in 2009. It only took two hours for his family to be processed through the emergency services centre.

“If, in 2009, we can do it efficiently – it was a mass evacuation then as well – and yet this time we did not do it efficiently,” de Jong said. “Why. What happened?”

He also wants the regional district to review its emergency management plan that was last revised in 2020.

“I think this is the first time the emergency management plan was put to the test,” de Jong said. “How did it work? Does it need a revision in the winter of 2023 so it’s going to be more effective moving forward?”

de Jong served a notice of motion at the West Kelowna council meeting yesterday, Sept. 16, to be debated by council at its next regular meeting on Oct. 10.

It calls on the mayor to send a letter to the regional district asking for an “independent public hearing process regarding the McDougall Creek wildfire with a focus on emergency support services and the effectiveness of the Regional District of Central Okanagan Emergency Plan.”

READ MORE: Mass wildfire evacuations force Central Okanagan emergency operations to rethink system

He wants this to happen quickly on the regional level rather than waiting for the province to do its own review.

“While we’re moving away into recovery, now’s the time to do this,” de Jong said. “If we wait until December or January, memories aren’t going to be as fresh.”

He also wants it to be an open, transparent, public and healing process.

“From volunteers to workers to residents who were impacted, I do believe there’s some stories that need to be told,” de Jong said. “There’s some sharing that needs to happen as part of the healing process and as part of the learning process to understand better what happened – what happened well and didn’t happen well.

“I don’t think all the stories were negative. I think there are good and bad things to learn from this but, I also think it needs to be a public process to allow all these individuals, if they so wish, to share their stories as part of the healing process and I believe it needs to be transparent so, at the end of the day, we can come out and say: ‘Yes this worked, this didn’t work and this is what we’re going to do to change it.’”

READ MORE: Emergency officials looking to improve communications after McDougall Creek wildfire

At the same time, he has high praise for those who did a great job fighting the fire that tore through the community overnight on Aug. 17, destroying dozens of homes.

The final tally of the damage has yet to be released.

“I do appreciate all the hard work from those frontline workers, volunteers, fire rescue, police – all the people on the front lines who worked hard to look after the community and residences,” de Jong said. “I appreciate them.”

A review, he hopes, will help them do their jobs even better in the future, but it has to start now.

“It has to be nimble and quick and provide fruitful dialogue, discussion and direction so we can be responsive before the next fire season because it’s around the corner,” de Jong said. “It’s coming back next year, quite possibly. If we can learn and do better, why not? Let’s do that.”

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