Fire-hazard reports find multiple N.S. communities at extreme risk, but most residents don't know it

Cassandra and Ted Parisee spend a lot of time thinking about the beauty — and danger — of the dense woods surrounding their Beaver Bank community just outside Halifax.

The couple manage community access to private woodlot land where they have come across burned trees and old campfire sites, even though tenting and starting fires in the area are banned. 

Although Cassandra said they love living so close to nature, the recent Upper Tantallon wildfire has been a sobering reminder of how quickly fire can get out of hand in a suburb at the forest edge.

"If it was to happen out here … our homes would probably be the first ones to go. So it's scary," Cassandra said.

The Parisees didn't know it, but the province assessed the Beaver Bank/Kinsac area for fire risk years ago and found that "the majority" of the community was ranked high to extreme for wildfire risk due to the makeup of the homes, nearby woods, limited road access and its water supply. 

"A higher [forest] content of softwoods that are dead and dying, create an extreme risk based on their flammability and fuel loading," the report found. "Older home construction or home construction of combustible materials, age, and proximity of the fuels to the homes make it an extreme risk of fire spread.

"These areas also represent a high life threat based on access and population, response times by fire personnel and inadequate resources for fire suppression."

For at least 10 years, the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Renewables has been assessing communities for fire risk — but the results aren't always getting to the people who would be most affected.

Beaver Bank's report is one of nine assessments completed around the province as of July, while 12 other communities have started the process.

CBC News has made all of the assessments publicly available, and can be viewed by clicking the links for below.

Five assessments are within the Halifax municipality: Westwood Hills, Beaver Bank, Hatchet Lake, Kelly Point in Prospect and Shag End near Blind Bay. The remaining four are in Lunenburg County: The Pointe on the Aspotogan peninsula, Masons Point, Sherbrooke Lake and Tancook Island.

Many other communities have hosted public information sessions about fire risks, like Chester Basin's annual event, while multiple First Nation communities in Nova Scotia have also been assessed.

Lisa Blackburn represents Beaver Bank on the Halifax Regional Municipality council. She said she's been aware of the assessment for some time, but doesn't think most of her residents have seen it — and that's "definitely a gap." 

"The fewer people that know about these things, the more chance there is that these reports will just sit on a shelf and collect dust," Blackburn said.