Officials knew of wildfire risk in Upper Tantallon for years but did nothing, say residents

Nick Horne looks across the river at the old bridge foundations on a trail in Westwood Hills, where he's hoped for years to see an emergency exit for his Upper Tantallon neighbourhood.

But the bridge has yet to be built — and it's on Nova Scotia Power land.

"I think it's a bit of a political football with regards to funding and political will," Horne said Thursday.

The province and Halifax Regional Municipality have known for years the area was an extreme fire risk, thanks in part to earlier reports that offered recommendations no one has enacted.

Then came the Upper Tantallon wildfire that began on May 28 in the neighbourhood located off Hammonds Plains Road — roughly 25 kilometres outside Halifax. Officials have said more than 200 structures were destroyed during the wildfire, including approximately 150 homes.

Horne had been heading out of the subdivision with his kids when they saw flames in the surrounding trees. He stopped to bang on neighbours' doors, warning them to leave before getting back in his car.

But instead of driving to safety via the emergency exit Horne and others had wanted installed off the end of Wright Lake Run at the north end of the subdivision, he sat in a long line of cars waiting to pass through the only exit at the southern end.

"If the wind had changed, there was no way out for us," Horne said. "We all would have perished.

"It was the most emotional experience I think I've ever had."

Horne said locals had requested a provincial fire assessment through the FireSmart program, knowing that Westwood would be in major trouble during an emergency.

So far, more than 40 N.S. communities have taken part in the program where staff map risks and educate residents and first responders on wildfire safety.

In 2016, wildfire prevention officer Kara McCurdy determined the northern end of Westwood Hills was at "extreme" risk, with southern parts at high and moderate risk.

Her protection plan made a number of recommendations, including creating a gated emergency road through to Wright Lake Run, installing dry fire hydrants since there are none, and creating a community buffer of thinned trees around the subdivision. Dry hydrants allow for a water supply when there is no municipal system available.

Armed with that information, Horne said he worked for years with former area councillor Matt Whitman, city staff, MLA Ben Jessome and Nova Scotia Power to put in the bridge and clear the exit through to a secondary road on provincial Crown land.

At one point, Horne said two old sections of the Macdonald Bridge were set aside during the Big Lift project to make that exit usable. The old bridge foundations date back to a time when access was needed to the old Bowater Mersey lands. Nova Scotia Power has a dam in the area, which is why it owns land there.

But everything "stalled at EMO and basically they ignored us," Horne said about Halifax's emergency management office. 

Even before the risk assessment, Halifax received a 2013 study from Dalhousie University that was partially funded by the Halifax municipality and developed a model to identify the future forest risk of forest fires in the area.

"We found very high risks in some of the places where the forest kind of interfaces directly with residential homes," said Eric Rapaport, report co-author and professor with Dalhousie University's School of Planning.

The report suggested the city create bylaws to clear space around residential homes, limit ongoing development in wildland-urban interface areas, educate private citizens in high-risk areas, and to "manage WUI areas for fire risk."

"It is a bit frustrating when we don't see things change and then we run into problems," Rapaport said.

Rapaport said he was surprised to see the Upper Tantallon wildfire spread so quickly. But in the aftermath, he has used data to see there were large swaths of quick-burning trees in most of the affected subdivisions — which McCurdy's assessment also noted.

'The evidence was there'

"We could have identified those trees and we could have started … 10 years ago in trying to remove some of that risk," Rapaport said.

"The evidence was there."

Tory Rushton, Nova Scotia's Minister of Natural Resources and Renewables, told reporters Thursday that putting in hydrants and new exits in the impacted subdivisions "would actually fall on the local municipality," while creating buffer zones could fall to the province if they're needed on Crown land.

Erica Fleck, emergency management division chief with the Halifax municipality, told CBC News on Wednesday she has been working on the Westwood exit issue for years, and has a list of 10 similar subdivisions where fire risks could pose a danger.

"We know it's an issue, everybody knows it's an issue but it's not an easy button. We don't own land there … so it becomes complicated. And it's not the answer anybody wants to hear but it's just not an easy fix unfortunately," Fleck said. 

Halifax council recently asked for a staff report on installing a new exit from Westwood. Another report on how much it would cost to install exits in similar areas across the regional municipality is expected by December. 

On Thursday, Public Works Minister Kim Masland said Halifax staff have approached her office in the past week to "provide them with provincial land to create more exits within HRM" and she predicted more will be created soon in neighbourhoods throughout Nova Scotia.