NAPATAK - Active involvement of community volunteers in wildfire risk reduction

THE APPROACH While residents of Napatak have been aware of the wildfire risk faced by their community for many years, the 2015 wildfires acted as a turning point for the development of local risk reduction efforts. [...] One of the first initiatives that was implemented in the community was the establishment of an Emergency Preparedness Team to ensure community safety. [...] (Source: Community of Napatak) Given the large amount of forested areas that come right at the edge of people’s properties in Napatak, the community also invested a lot of time in the establishment and maintenance of wildfire defensible buffer zones. [...] With the support of FireSmart Canada, a group of residents organized themselves and received approval to clean these spaces in order to reduce the risk of fire damage in the community. [...] In addition to all the local initiatives that have been taking place in the community to mitigate the risk of damage from future fires, the community is now looking at investing in a new building that would be used to house an emergency command centre, firefighting equipment and to host FireSmart events.