Our mission is to protect the safety of the Knutsford community through timely and effective responses to the threat of emergency situations such as wildfires.
We are a community-driven not-for-profit alliance of residents, property owners and businesses.
Our effectiveness is amplified through working cooperatively with a network of allies who share common aims – individuals, governments, corporations and other agencies.
The impetus for banding together started in 2021 when wildfires were threatening much of BC’s interior, including the Knutsford area. A number of forward looking community members recognized the need for preparation and some degree of organization to increase our safety and effectiveness in responding to incidents.
A great deal of preparatory work was done at that time, and that helped lay the groundwork for being so successful as a community in coming together in 2023 to confront the intense threat of the Ross Moore Lake wildfire.
This groundwork carried out in 2021 served as a platform for being more organized in the areas of communications, training, coordination of volunteer efforts and working effectively with government agencies such as BC Wildfire Services and the Thompson Nicola Regional District.
Our experience in 2023 with the Ross Moore Lake wildfire, where all residences were spared due to the heroic cooperative efforts of everyone involved, is seen as a success story by others and is being considered as a possible model to be applied to other communities throughout BC.
While the level of community cooperation and good will reached unbelievable heights in the summer of 2023 during the successfully confrontation of the Ross Moore Lake, there was recognition that we still needed to be somewhat more formally organized should emergency threats reappear in the future.
So, the idea of forming a society took root, culminating in being officially certified in December 2023 as the “Knutsford Community Response Society” under the BC Societies Act.
Knutsford Initial Response Team
The core of our KCR Society is the “Response Team” which took shape and gained valuable experience while working on the front lines of the Ross Moore Lake wildfire. Members of the response team are trained in wildfire suppression and served an essential role in coordinating the efforts of many local area volunteers, as well as cooperating with BC Wildfire Services in
the overall response.
Since becoming a society, the Response Team is preparing for the upcoming fire season in 2024 and beyond, including training, recruiting more team members, developing communications protocols, and acquiring needed equipment such as personal protective equipment [PPE], radios and firefighting equipment such as pumps, water tenders, hoses and nozzles.
For our Response Team to be successful, they need a solid and well-built platform on which to carry out their work.
This is where the other functions of the KCR Society come into play.
- Getting organized as a well-functioning society – including forming a Board of Directors, electing officers [President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer], setting up a bank account and ongoing financial management, applying for “registered charity” status to allow us to issue tax receipts for donations, setting up record keeping systems, and much more.
- Communications – methods, protocols and equipment needed for effective communications with community residents ongoing
during emergency events when our response team will be deployed. - Generating revenues – it takes a lot of money to support a well-functioning response team with effective backup from the society – both ongoing operating costs as well as
project costs for needed equipment. - Technology – making effective use of available, affordable technology to enhance communications and overall effectiveness, including mapping, GIS systems, data acquisition and management, and coordination with other agencies.
- Partnering – planning and working cooperatively with others, building a network of allies – individuals, governments, corporations, funding agencies Entering into more formal agreements where appropriate.