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No port-a-potty delayed forest firefighters: MLA
TED CLARKE Citizen staff
Grace Barlow is bringing her B.C. Hockey League experience back to Prince George. The 23-year-old Barlow made hockey history in October when she was one of the referees who was part of an all-female on-ice officiating crew that worked a BCHL game between the South Surrey Eagles and Langley Rivermen. Last Saturday at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena, Barlow was one of the stripes wearing a red armband when the Prince George Spruce Kings hosted the Vernon Vipers. “For me, growing up watching the Spruce Kings and getting to go out there and see these big boys
out there knowing that now it’s my turn to be out there with them, it’s very exciting,” said Barlow. “Getting to be in the former Coliseum and growing up playing in that rink and coaching and reffing in that rink, it’s exciting to go in there and have that opportunity just be in front of a home crowd.” Barlow grew up playing hockey in Prince George and played three seasons in the B.C. Hockey Female Midget Triple-A League from 2013-16 playing defence for the Northern Capitals, helping them to consecutive league championships in 2015 and 2016. Barlow got into officiating after her playing career ended and she served two seasons as a linesman before she became a referee. See HOPEFULLY, page 4
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CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE
Referee Grace Barlow keeps a close eye on the action during Saturday’s game at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena between the Prince George Spruce Kings and the Vernon Vipers.
The bureaucracy of fighting wildfires was never more apparent to Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad than when he heard about a missing biffy delay that kept a fire crew waiting while the forest around them burned. “This summer we had crews sitting by the side of the road for five hours waiting for a porta-potty to come in before they could do the work,” said the opposition critic for Forests, Lands and Natural Resources. “These are the kinds of things that need to be dealt with.” A BC Wildfire Service report determined the province spent $565 million fighting 1,610 wildfires that scorched 8,682 square-kilometres between April 1 and Sept. 30. In 2017, $649 million was spent fighting fires that burnt 12,000 square-kilometres. At the height of the fire season in late June and early July, when the province was enveloped with record-breaking temperatures all over B.C., there were as many as 300 wildfires burning in one day. Aided
by the sweltering heat and dry lightning flashes, dozens of new fires started each day, one of which destroyed Lytton and killed two of its residents. “When it comes to fighting fires themselves, B.C. Wildfire Service is really good at initial-attack crews,” said Rustad. “They get in and get the vast majority of fires out quickly. The problem is when they can’t get into a fire because they’re too busy. Instead of having private-sector crews that could go in and deal with it, B.C. Wildfire insists that they have to do an assessment before they allow any crews to go in. “Part of that is Worksafe BC (regulations) and part of that is policy within the ministry, but sometimes these fires can burn for days before anybody can go in and do an assessment, where (private) crews could get in and put it out.” Rustad said in 2018 in the southern Interior a two-day delay in getting a B.C. Wildfire assessment turned a small fire in an unpopulated area into a raging out-of-control inferno that covered thousands of hectares and burned for weeks.
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TED CLARKE