Another year, another wildfire season, and some B.C. communities are looking to get a head start before any major blazes.

Merritt Mayor Mike Goetz says preparations in his community never really stop.

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“We are one of the very few communities that have a full-time Emergency Management Coordinator,” he said.

“We also have a full-time EOC [Emergency Operations Centre] that is always ready to go, and we have a full-time training session for our ESS [Emergency Support Services] members.”

The city communicates regularly with the local fire department, BC Wildfire Service (BCWS), BC Forestry, and the River Forecasting Centre, Goetz says.

He says they have been working to streamline operations at their local airport to make sure fire resources are able to make their way to the area.

“We have a smaller airport here, and sometimes it’s hard to marshal all the helicopters where they need to go, along with their trailers and their tankers,” he said.

“We have made some movement over the winter to make that a more streamlined process so they have a safer place to work, and we can book them in so we know who’s coming and we can get them set up and ready to go.”

As well, he says they have been working over the winter to make sure fuel deliveries are not interrupted.

Goetz says the severity of this year’s wildfire season all depends on the weather.

“We’ve had finally, for the first time in about three or four years, an actual normal winter where we had some snow on the ground and it stayed for quite a while, and then before that, we had quite a bit of rain, so we’ve had a fair bit of moisture come down, but it all depends on what the prolonged heat looks like,” he said.

“I think as we get closer to June and July, the conversations will be a little bit more as we start to see some hot, hot days. And because it only takes two or three days of 35 to 39 C, people start to get nervous.”

According to Goetz, the area usually sees at least one large wildfire every year.

“It’s going to be somewhere, take your pick, take a lightning strike, take a camper that didn’t put out their campfire, take a dirt biker that doesn’t have a spark arrestor on his muffler,” he said.

“Take any one of those picks at any one point in time, anywhere, and you’re going to have yourself a fire.”

On Monday, the BC Wildfire Service said it invested $14 million to expand on-the-ground firefighting equipment like trucks and camp infrastructure. Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar told 1130 NewsRadio the province was “hoping for the best, preparing for the worst, but we are ready” for wildfire season. The province has had a record-breaking year for interest in joining the BCWS, he said. As well, a $21 million equipment depot in Prince George will soon be operational.