Crews are fighting a fast-moving wildfire in the city of Williams Lake, in B.C.’s central Interior, with several homes and businesses being told to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
The city has declared a local state of emergency and has banned all public access to Williams Lake, the body of water from which the city gets its name, in order to ensure access for emergency crews.
The city has also issued a notice urging residents to conserve water to ensure an adequate supply for emergency crews and asked residents and visitors to stay away from the wildfire zone.
“My request to the community is stay calm, stay off the road. There’s a lot of water-tanker travelling, lots of big machine travelling to move things around, and don’t come in the way,” Mayor Surinderpal Rathor told CBC News.
Crews moved fast to try to protect businesses and homes from a wildfire that broke out in Williams Lake, B.C., on July 21.
Rathor said new flare-ups were keeping crews busy and confirmed that the fire had consumed part of one unoccupied structure.
Several neighbourhoods are also under an evacuation alert, with a notice to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
Williams Lake is home to approximately 10,000 residents and serves a wider area of approximately 20,000 as the main hub city in the Cariboo region.
In 2017, the entire community was ordered evacuated for weeks on end due to a record-breaking wildfire season.
But even then, Rathor — who has lived in Williams Lake for five decades — said he has never seen fire growth as quick as what he witnessed Sunday.
“Within minutes the fire was so grand you wouldn’t believe it,” Rathor said. The flames were further fuelled by “wind so heavy, I’ve never seen that kind of wind before.”
He reiterated a message that has been being shared by wildfire officials in B.C. for months: prolonged hot, dry conditions with little rain and extremely warm temperatures have made much of the province vulnerable to flames.
That situation has devolved in recent days, with more than 100 new wildfires sparked in the past week and hundreds of residents facing evacuation orders and alerts.
Downed tree sparked fire
According to the city’s emergency operations director Rob Warnock, the fire in Williams Lake was sparked at about 5:45 p.m. PT Sunday when a tree fell on power lines in the river valley on the city’s west side.
It then began growing toward the Mackenzie Avenue area, threatening several homes and businesses, prompting RCMP to conduct several “tactical evacuations.”
Late Sunday, residents were allowed to return home and Mackenzie Avenue was reopened to traffic, though several properties without power have closed and some side streets have been shut down.
Warnock said the situation was less volatile than Sunday, but with more wind in the forecast, that could change quickly.
Rathor said he is grateful to everyone responding to the fire, and “I pray to almighty God that I don’t have to sign any evacuation order.”