Summer camps in Nova Scotia take precautions in the midst of a natural fire threat
Summer camps in Nova Scotia clean up their evacuation procedures in case of fire, say camp staff.
Paige Bigelow, executive director of Kingswood Camp in Aylesford, says that she has received calls from parents who are concerned about fire risks in the camp.
“They trust us with their children for the weekend,” said Bigelow. “So camper safety is our priority. We try to be in advance and honestly against them when the situation changes.”
She said the staff is vigilant around the forest, especially after the Two small fires near Lake Paul.
Alison Cook, a camp manager at Camp Kidston in Middle Musquodoboit, said their property is surrounded by forests in an area that is determined to have serious drought, according to the Canadian drying monitor.
“If we have to evacuate, we have a plan in place, and the best way we can follow with it is if we are all here in one place in the base camp,” she said, noticed that activities in the forest have been suspended and children are only allowed in the base camp and the lake.
In a statement to CBC, the Ministry of Emergency Management said that it cooperates with municipalities to help develop their emergency plans, and then “municipalities work with organizations in their region to support them” in making evacuation plans.
“Everyone who is confronted with an evacuation warrant would be directly contacted by the authorities, whether that is RCMP, local police or through the Ministry of Emergency Management. This would apply for residents, companies or organizations,” the department said.
Bigelow says that her camp is willing to relocate his nearly 90 people on site when a natural fire threatens, including staff and campers.
“We have a few different areas that we can evacuate in both directions, depending on where the fire comes from,” she said. “We would get all our campers in the cars that we have on site and bring them to one of those locations.”
Cook says that her camp has no vehicles to transport children and depends on emergency services.
The camp is confident after a check with emergency services that it can get the campers a bus and everyone can get out of it in an emergency.
The camp also has a lake nearby, which can also help.
“If there is a fire, everyone goes to the waterfront and pulls life in case we have to get into the water to protect ourselves,” she said.
Changes in programming
Summer camps also had to adjust part of their programming, such as stopping campfires.
Bigelow said that Kingswood Camp has few paths in the forest, so it is little need to change the programming.
“Since then we have been in contact with the Department of Natural Resources and they have advised us to continue as we would normally do,” she said.
