Hundreds of British Columbians remain on evacuation order Monday morning as more than 360 wildfires burn throughout the province.
They include all residents of the village of Slocan, a community of about 380 people in a part of southeastern B.C. where several out-of-control wildfires are burning, including two wildfires of note — fires that are highly visible or are threatening public safety.
DriveBC says Highway 6 along Slocan Lake remains closed for a nearly 40-kilometre stretch from south of Slocan to just beyond New Denver to the north.
Dan Seguin with the Regional District of Central Kootenay’s Emergency Operations Centre said Monday morning it was a busy weekend for his team, having issued an evacuation alert for Slocan on Saturday that was upgraded to an evacuation order Sunday morning.
By the time the order was in place, more than half of Slocan residents had already left, Seguin said.
“It’s hard to leave home,” Seguin told CBC’s Daybreak Kamloops host Shelley Joyce.
“We got that early advance warning from the B.C. Wildfire Service … and that gave residents enough time to pack up, make sure their house was in order and make that decision to leave early.”
Jason Lawler, an incident commander for an Australian team working in the area, said challenging terrain, dry fuel and smoke in the region has made work difficult for crews in the area.
“Over the next few days it’s critical for us to keep our eyes on the weather conditions,” he said in a video posted to social media by the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS).
According to Environment Canada, there is a chance of showers for the area on Monday.
The BCWS says rain and cooler temperatures in recent days have improved fire behaviour in some areas, but a number of communities are still under threat.
An overview of the fire situation on Monday morning shows there are more than 1,400 people fighting wildfires in B.C. right now.
It also says almost half of the 364 fires currently burning in B.C. are deemed out of control, and about 90 per cent of active wildfires were caused by lightning. There are six wildfires of note in the province.
The Shetland Creek wildfire around 70 kilometres west of Kamloops has forced several evacuation orders and alerts for the surrounding area, and has now grown to nearly 250 square kilometres.
The Thompson-Nicola Regional District issued a new evacuation order for a few properties south of Spences Bridge on Sunday, and expanded an evacuation alert to include 152 additional properties for that same area due to the huge blaze.
A wildfire in Sooke Potholes Park also grew over the weekend, as predicted by wildfire officials. As of Monday morning it is now estimated at 2.3 square kilometres in size.
The BCWS says it will be doing a planned ignition on the north side of the Calcite Creek wildfire on Monday if conditions are “favourable.”
Source Agencies
