It is hotter and drier than it has been in years in the District of Squamish, but Squamish Fire Rescue says it’s ready for the Squamish Valley Music Festival (SVMF) influx.
“There’s always lots of provisions in place, it is always a big concern of ours, but this year we are looking to heighten the awareness and extra measures to prevent fires,” said Squamish Fire Rescue Chief Bob Fulton.
He said there was always fire safety plans in place for previous festivals.
This year there will again be six full-time firefighters on day and night from Thursday to Monday morning. Last year there were also six on staff, and in previous years there were four full-time firefighters on for the festival. Normally on the weekend there are no full-time fighters.
“On the remote sites and the main sites they have fire stations… set up with portable extinguishers and water and in the camping areas too, they have look out towers and their security staff is trained to fight fires,” Fulton said.
Smoking is only allowed in designated smoking areas.
“Because we know it is unrealistic to say no one is going to smoke and we would rather that they go to a safe area where there is gravel to smoke rather than go hiding in the bushes and throwing cigarettes into the bushes.”
At the camping sites, gas-powered small campstoves are allowed but not briquette barbecues, Fulton said. Cooking is allowed only in certain centralized areas within the campsites.
There will also be some trail closures, Fulton said, to keep people out of the most dry wooded trail areas. There is some consideration of SVMF having a trail patrol with personnel and firefighting equipment.
If conditions remain as dry and hot as they have been a fire truck may wet down various walking routes such as from the Pioneer Way camping site, where pedestrians are channeled through.
Fulton said that some in the public are still not being as careful as they could be about fire.
“We still see people throwing cigarettes out of cars,” he said. “And we just came back from a fire that was in a condo and they dropped a cigarette into peat moss that they use for landscaping… with the Squamish winds of course a little tiny fire can blow up into a big fire in no time.”
Mayor Patricia Heintzman said she isn’t worried about the festival that last year drew about 105,000 revelers over the weekend.
“With a lot of people around, the irony is you actually see things quicker,” she said. “This is not [SVMF’s] first rodeo show; they have been doing this for many years and every year they improve and make it better. So this is a very professional group of people who is putting on this show, and our staff has been very diligent about working with them and they are doing a good job, so you’ve got to just let them do a good job.”
There is enough water for the festival, she said. “Squamish Valley Music Festival needs can easily be managed by the system,” she said, adding that the festival organizers bring in a lot of water. “There aren’t any compromises being made at all; we would never do that.”
The festival starts August 6.
