Harrison Hot Springs will receive additional funding from the provincial government to prevent and fight wildfires.
The village will receive $400,000 of Community Resilience Investment (CRI) funding through the FireSmart Community Funding and Supports (FCFS) program over the next two years.
Village officials said they plan to invest $50,000 of that funding per year into structure protection unit equipment for the Harrison Hot Springs Fire Department.
Additional items earmarked for this spending stream include structure protection and wildland fire training for the HHSFD, a FireSmart crew member focused on wildfire mitigation projects in the village and other projects recommended in the 2024 Community Wildfire Resilience Plan.
Harrison's Community Wildfire Resilience Plan is a 95-page, recently updated document detailing the risks and history of wildfires in the area and recommended plans of action to combat and prevent future wildfires. Some of the major initiatives listed within include increased FireSmart informational presence and workshops, assessing home fire hazards and safeguarding critical infrastructure.
Over the course of the past year, Harrison Hot Springs has bolstered their wildfire defences, including installing a Sensenet early wildfire detection system on the east side of the village and conducting a number of fuel management operations throughout the area.
The CRI funding stream was created in Sept. 2018 and is split into two substreams: FCFS (under which Harrison Hot Springs' funding falls) and Crown Land Wildfire Risk Reduction. The FCFS stream began as a $60-million investment in local communities and First Nations to delivery FireSmart services and initiatives.
As of Thursday, June 26, the wildfire risk for much of the Lower Mainland, including Agassiz-Harrison, remains low. There have been two wildfires in the Agassiz-Harrison area in 2025, which have burned about 1.4 hectares of land, primarily in the Mount Woodside and Harrison Mills area.
As of Thursday, there are 73 active wildfires in B.C. Lightning is the listed cause of 88 per cent of currently active wildfires , according to B.C. Wildfire Service.
To report a wildfire, call 1-800-663-5555, *5555 on a cellphone, or use the BC Wildfire Service app.
