Fort Smith releases 2023 wildfire after-action recommendations for residents

Improving how the town deals with interruptions in water power and communication, sharing emergency plans, and training people involved in those emergency plans are just a handful of the recommendations from the after Action Review released this week. I mean, you always look back on things and you see what can we do better all the time. So we did. There’s a mail drop going out with the emergency preparedness guide. There’s a available, and the mail drop just happened today with for your emergency kits, what you can do to get ready. Emergency preparedness guide tomorrow is actually National Wildfire Prevention or prevention days, so you can fire smart your house, that type of thing. The town wants to get a jump start on the wildfire season and get everyone on the same page. After two evacuations last summer and a wildfire that ripped through nearby forests, Coral says they’re not leaving residents out of the planning. People had a chance to speak about the recommendations at a meeting this week. It was mainly throughout the town for people to come out and be able to to give their feedback on what they thought. Went well? Maybe. What can be improved? And just sometimes just to be able to have their say on what they felt needed to be done. The ultimate goal is to refresh the town’s emergency plan. Coral says that plan will be updated May 15th, and then residents will have another chance to have their say. Coral says she hopes they can roll out the new plan as soon as possible. Robert Holden, CBC News, Yellowknife.