Indigenous communities in B.C. and California promote cultural burns for disaster mitigation [Video]

In the heat of the L.A. fires, Jeremiah Louis is reminded of 2021 when fire surrounded the Okanagan Indian Band (OKIB), his home community.

“In the beginning, I was feeling helpless,” he said. 

In the years leading up to the White Rock Lake wildfire, some members of the OKIB took it upon themselves to practise fire prevention, with an Indigenous technique known as cultural burning, around a cluster of homes each spring  — and because of this, he says the homes were spared during the fire.

As of Tuesday afternoon, two major blazes in the Los Angeles area, the Palisades and Eaton fires, had destroyed more than 14,000 structures since breaking out during fierce winds on Jan. 7. At least 27 people have died.