Residents of Williams Lake, B.C., have been on the front lines of fighting wildfires to save their community, with water bombers dispersing fire retardant, crews dousing structure fires from ladders and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police evacuating residents.
The BC Wildfire Service said fire crews were “mopping up” Monday after intense efforts Sunday to try to protect the B.C. Interior community from wildfires.
The River Valley Fire reached the western edge of the city, destroying some structures in an industrial area and prompting evacuations as the city declared a local state of emergency.
The blaze, which grew to 40 hectares on Monday according to the BC Wildfire Service, is one of more than 330 fires burning in British Columbia, with outbreaks along the B.C.-Alberta border and in the central Interior.
Fire activity has spread across British Columbia. The Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Preparedness said there are about 440 properties under evacuation orders and another 3,000 on alert, calling the situation “dynamic and constantly evolving.”
Videos shared on social media show smoke billowing from behind businesses and homes, with a plane dropping red fire retardant. Photos appear to show at least one business on fire.
Cariboo-Chilcotin legislator Lorne Doerkson said in social media posts that the fire “spread very quickly” through the community last night, prompting an “incredible response” from the BC Wildfire Service as well as the Williams Lake Fire Department and other first responders.
Lorne Doerkson, who said there were “explosions” as crews tried to control the flames Sunday on the outskirts of town, said the firefighters’ efforts “had a significant impact.”
“There are a few small localized fires, but I would say there are a very large number of ground crews and equipment battling the remnants of this fire,” said one of his Facebook posts, published around midnight Sunday.
In another post published Monday, it was mentioned that fire crews from as far away as Barriere, more than 200 kilometres from the city, had been involved.
Environment Canada issued the warning shortly before 11 a.m. Monday. The BC Wildfire Service noted Monday that the province had recorded more than 20,000 lightning strikes the previous day. It had previously said fires were appearing in areas that have been struck by dry lightning in recent days.
SOPFEU provides reinforcements in Williams Lake
But the director of Williams Lake’s emergency operations centre said residents have since been told they can return home after tactical evacuations by RCMP on Sunday.
However, Warnock clarified in a video posted Sunday evening on the city’s website that these homes were under an evacuation alert, meaning residents should be ready to leave quickly.
The alert covers properties along Mackenzie Avenue, Country Club Boulevard, Fairview Drive, Woodland Drive, Westridge Drive, as well as the Tolko lumber mill in Lakeview.
Warnock said the 200,000-square-metre fire started when a tree fell on power lines in the river valley west of the city around 5:45 p.m. Sunday. The B.C. Forest Fire Protection Agency website says the official cause is still under investigation.
With current winds, Mr Warnock said the fire “made significant progress” in the valley on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, the city had asked residents to conserve water so firefighters could fight the blaze.
The Société de protection des forêts contre le feu du Québec (SOPFEU) indicated Monday that it had deployed two air tankers and their crews (four pilots and two technicians) to Williams Lake the day before, “for an indefinite period.” The SOPFEU also deployed 2,000 ground watering hoses and two air tankers, with crews, to Alberta.
“The situation prevailing in Quebec and the operational capabilities of SOPFEU allow it to lend resources to its colleagues in other provinces without harming its capacity to intervene on Quebec territory,” the agency said in a press release.
More wildfires rage
British Columbia Premier David Eby said Monday the government is deploying all possible resources to help people threatened by wildfires in the province.
“This is an incredibly stressful time for many British Columbians. We have hundreds of people under evacuation orders. We have had thousands of people notified that they may have to evacuate their homes. Unfortunately, it’s the start of the fire season that we were concerned about,” he said at a news conference.
The number of wildfires posing a risk to people or property increased from one to four as fire activity increased over the weekend.
A few hundred kilometres northeast of Williams Lake, the Cariboo Regional District declared a local state of emergency due to the Antler Creek fire, issuing evacuation orders for the Wells district and the historic mining resort town of Barkerville over the weekend.
The evacuation was expanded Monday to include the popular tourist destination of Bowron Lake Provincial Park. The entire park is not covered by the evacuation order, but most of the lakes are included, as well as the Mount Tisdale Ecological Reserve.
In the southern Interior, the Shetland Creek wildfire, which is nearly 200 square kilometres in size, has prompted the Thompson-Nicola Regional District to expand the evacuation order along the Thompson River, from Ashcroft in the north to Spences Bridge in the south.
The district said about nine properties were added to the order, which now covers a total of 97 addresses, while residents of another 213 properties were told to prepare to leave at short notice.
The BC Wildfire Service said nearly 140 firefighters and 12 helicopters are currently working on the fire. The regional head office confirmed some structures in the Venables Valley have been destroyed by the fire.
Other fires of note are the Aylwin Creek fire and the nearby Komonko Creek fire, both in the southeast of the province.
The Central Kootenay Regional District has issued multiple evacuation orders for both fires.
Intense wildfire activity in British Columbia has been fueled by a heat wave that has pushed temperatures in the Interior region above 40 C in recent days. Environment Canada has issued 28 heat alerts for the Interior and eastern parts of B.C., although some of the alerts have been lifted in western regions.