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Officials in B.C. are helping co-ordinate the evacuation of Jasper National Park in Alberta while also managing more than 300 wildfires burning from Vancouver Island to the province’s far northeast.
Some progress has been made on notable wildfires despite unstable weather conditions Monday as severe thunderstorms and strong winds rolled through the province’s Interior and north.
Stormy weather is expected to continue in the north on Tuesday. Environment Canada has issued rainfall warnings for parts of northwestern B.C., while in the northeast, the forecast for Fort Nelson shows the risk of a thunderstorm, a chance of showers and widespread smoke from fires in the area.
A persistent heat wave throughout July has dried out forests in many parts of B.C., setting the stage for potentially extreme fire behaviour.
Lightning is the cause of the vast majority of the approximately 380 fires burning across B.C. and a bulletin from the service says the province saw more than 20,000 strikes on Monday.
There are evacuation orders for more than 440 properties and alerts for over 3,000 in a situation the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness has called “dynamic and ever-changing.”
B.C. is seeing increasingly hotter, drier summers and fire seasons that start earlier and last longer than they did a decade ago, and Environment Canada expects wildfires to grow more intense and happen more often thanks to human-caused climate change.
“This is, unfortunately, the beginning of the fire season that we were concerned about,” Premier David Eby said during an unrelated news conference Monday. Several detours are in effect due to wildfires, with the Ministry of Transportation warning more roads and highways could be closed with little notice. Drivers are advised to visit drivebc.ca for the latest information.
Evacuees from Alberta
B.C. Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma says B.C. is providing “safe passage” to thousands of evacuees from neighbouring Alberta, where a fast-moving wildfire is threatening the community of Jasper, Alta., and its eponymous national park.
Residents and visitors were told to take Highway 16 into B.C., rather than heading farther east into Alberta where highways have been closed.
Wildfires in the region have also closed B.C’s Highway 16 eastbound from Tête Jaune Cache toward the Alberta border, covering Mount Robson Provincial Park. The westbound lane was to remain open for evacuees.
More than 100 properties south of Silverton village are on evacuation order due to the Slocan Lakes Fire Complex. The entire village and its surroundings are also on evacuation alert. We spoke with Silverton’s mayor about the wildfire situation and how residents are feeling.
Because of these closures, Alberta evacuees have been asked to take a circuitous route through B.C. to reception centres in Grande Prairie, Alta., and Calgary.
This, Ma said, is because Alberta is able to offer longer-term support. Many B.C. communities are already at capacity with tourists and evacuees from wildfires in their own province, she said.
Wells Gray Park partially evacuated
Some Jasper evacuees have headed for Clearwater, B.C., about 100 kilometres north of Kamloops, according to its mayor, Merlin Blackwell.
Clearwater is seeing a moderate amount of Jasper evacuees. The public washrooms at the skate park are open and the ones at Dutch Lake beach will be open soon. <a href=”https://t.co/w7mWmhmcgU”>pic.twitter.com/w7mWmhmcgU</a>
—@BlackwellMerlin
Another small wildfire was discovered Tuesday just outside the city, on Clearwater Peak. According to the B.C. Wildfire Service, it is less than one hectare in size and was caused by lightning. As of Tuesday afternoon, it is listed as out of control.
Another 60 kilometres north, Wells Gray Provincial Park has been partially closed due to a wildfire near Murtle Lake. The park is a hot destination for campers, canoers, kayakers and hikers.
Regional director Steven Hodgson ordered recreational park users to immediately evacuate on Tuesday.
Sooke fire growing quickly
A fire that broke out near Sooke, B.C., on Monday has quickly grown.
That afternoon, Sooke Potholes Park on Vancouver Island was closed due to a wildfire detected near Mavis Lake. At the time, the fire was about five hectares. By Tuesday morning, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service, it had grown to about 30 hectares.
The service says the wildfire was caused by humans — a broad category which includes accidents and intentional fires — and is currently out of control.
Williams Lake
Some parts of the community of Williams Lake — which was evacuated for weeks in 2017 due to wildfires — are under evacuation alert due to the River Valley wildfire burning on the city’s edge.
On Monday night, Interior Health said it had relocated 21 residents from a long-term care home in the fire’s vicinity
Crews gained “significant ground” against the fire Monday, the city said in an evening update, with plans to establish more protections Tuesday morning.
In a morning update, Mayor Surinderpal Rathor said evening thunderstorms started several new fires without dumping rain “for a long enough time to make a big difference.”
The B.C. Wildfire Service listed the 40-hectare fire as being held on Tuesday, a designation that means crews don’t expect it to expand at this point.
A local state of emergency remains in place.
Barkerville and Wells
Two other communities in the Cariboo region — Wells and Barkerville — are under evacuation order due to the Antler Creek wildfire just southeast of the community. The evacuation order also extends to Bowron Lake Provincial Park.
On Monday evening, the B.C. Wildfire Service said the fire had expanded to 32 square kilometres and was now just three kilometres from Wells and Barkerville.
It said it had managed to establish control lines and a “humidity bubble” in Barkerville and the surrounding area to minimize the risk of the old, wooden buildings burning.
The service said it was expecting the fire to increase in size in the coming days, as it could merge with other, smaller burns in the area.
The Wells Hotel shared a photo Tuesday morning on Facebook showing blue skies and a wet street. “The magic showed up last night in the form of torrential rain, and we’re all breathing much easier,” the caption read.
Carrie Johnston, one of around 200 Wells residents who had to leave her home, said that she was receiving an overwhelming amount of support in the community of Quesnel, where she had to flee.
“It’s a really strong family community, and I don’t have to tell anybody how special Barkerville is to every citizen in the entire province of British Columbia,” she told CBC News of her home and the efforts to save it.
“People are going to extra effort. There are people, you know, not being paid … that are putting in a massive amount of effort.”
Fires pop up in Kamloops
Kamloops fire Chief Ken Uzeloc said Tuesday that lightning strikes sparked two fires in the city Monday evening — one near Peterson Creek, and another near the Rose Hill neighbourhood — that were extinguished by 5:30 a.m.
“Everything’s dry again from the heat event we’ve had from the last couple weeks, and the wind,” he said. “So it doesn’t take much.”
Shetland Creek, Kootenays wildfires
Another wildfire of note is the Shetland Creek fire, which has put thousands of people on alert in the Ashcroft area west of Kamloops after forcing evacuations on Friday that were expanded Monday.
The wildfire, last measured at 200 square kilometres, forced the closure of Highway 1 between Ashcroft and Spences Bridge throughout Monday. The next update is expected at noon PT on Tuesday.
In the east, the Aylwin Creek and Komonko Creek fires in the Central Kootenays have placed hundreds of people on evacuation alert.
Jina Mousseau describes the scramble to evacuate from Jasper, Alta., from getting gas and bottled water to the long drive on a busy highway. ‘The smoke was super heavy…. You could see ash falling on the windshield,’ she recalls.
Silverton, B.C., Mayor Tanya Gordon told the Canadian Press the weather has cleared the smoke near the Central Kootenay village, but it has added to residents’ anxiety because people can now easily see the Aylwin and Komondo Creek fires burning just south of the community.
Gordon said the village has not received any updates from the wildfire service on the status of the fires, and residents are “anxious” as Highway 6 southbound out of town has been closed.
B.C.’s escalating fire situation has many residents on edge. In Nakusp, some residents are choosing to jump into action and take matters into their own hands to fight wildfires. They fear the logging roads would pose a challenge for local firefighters.
“The smoke has lifted, and it’s becoming more real,” Gordon said. “Something like this hasn’t happened [in Silverton] for a long time.”