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Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen
2020 Christie Mountain Wildfire

After Action Report (AAR)

The Christie Mountain Wildfire took place from August 18-26 2020. It spread quickly and within 24-hours, evacuation orders were issued and over 4000 homes were either subject to evacuation orders or alerts  ̶  one home was lost. Fortunately, the wildfire did not progress into what could have been a much worse incident. At its peak there were over 200 firefighters and an additional 100 emergency responders from more than 50 agencies involved in the response. It should be noted that this all took place during the COVID-19 pandemic and while the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen’s information technology systems were largely unavailable due to a ransomware-attack. Conditions could not have been much more challenging.

The After-Action Report (AAR) was commissioned by the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) through a joint Emergency Authorization Form (EAF) submitted to Emergency Management British Columbia (EMBC) between the RDOS and the City of Penticton (CoP).  The AAR was prepared by Ally Emergency Management Inc. (Ally). The AAR provided a summary of information gathered from a web survey and facilitated debriefs with RDOS staff, City of Penticton (CoP) staff, Emergency Social Services (ESS) volunteers, and other agencies who participated in the response to the Christie Mountain Interface Fire event from August 18-27, 2020. In addition, the AAR offered recommendations to enhance emergency response capacity in the region based on lessons learned during the event.

Details

• Client Name: Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen 
• Location: Penticton, BC
• Participants: 100+