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Letter: Barking dogs don’t belong with fire evacuees

Kelowna - In my old fashioned opinion, the fire evacuation centres are for human use
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Image: Curt Story/Everett Animal Shelter

To the editor:

This is probably the declaration of war with pet owners and would-be animal lovers but being that I’m well-fortified in my beliefs, I’ll fire the first shot.

In my old fashioned opinion, the fire evacuation centres are for human use and pet owners should be responsible for the care of any of their animals. I’ll go one step further. People with pets should be sent to a separate shelters and segregated with their barking dogs from the other evacuees whose tensions are not calmed by someone’s barking mutt.

When Williams Lake was being evacuated one person remarked of the time it took to get from Williams Lake to 150 Mile because of the congestion on the highway. I watched a similar scenario on Highway 33 in 2003 when the evacuation order was given in the area of Black Mountain.

The difference is these vehicles were not moving at all for the best part of an hour and should the fire have jumped Mission Creek, during that time, hundreds of people would have been fried right there in their vehicle as there was no place to escape to.

Some women, children and elderly should obey an evacuation order. Able-bodied persons should be required to stay and fight the fire. Contrary to popular belief and government standards, you don’t need a degree in rocket science to turn on a fire hose and put out the fire which is approaching a dwelling.

Gorman’s crew proved that just a few years ago when they saved their sawmill from total destruction. Not only did they save the sawmill, but as I understand it, one responsible employee defied the evacuation order and returned to his home and caught several looters in the act of a home invasion.

Why does the media think that it is important for us to know that a fire is “x” number of hectares in size? Just put the damn thing out.

Why are the Martin Mars planes not used on these fires? Why are pet animals taking precedence over animals essential to one’s livelihood?

C.W. Holford, Kelowna