Evacuation orders have been put in place Tuesday after two wildfires near Kamloops grew in size overnight.
The Cook’s Ferry Indian Band has issued an evacuation order for its Nicoelton reserve as two wildfires burn north of Spences Bridge, B.C.
The band issued the order today “in the interest of life and safety,” while it also put in place evacuation alerts for three more of its reserves.
The band says the Teit Creek and Shetland Creek wildfires, burning at 249 hectares and 285 hectares wide, respectively, pose an “imminent danger” to its Nicoelton reserve.
Both fires are deemed “out of control” by BCWS.
Information Officer with the BCWS Taylor Coleman says the Teit Creek Wildifre has made the terrain inaccessible.
“It’s on a really steep slope, and there’s no road or state access route for ground crews,” she said. “So we haven’t had any crews on that fire, but they have been helicopters bucketing water on that fire, keeping fire behaviour cool.”
Coleman says they are assessing what could be achievable for ground crews and where it would be safe for them to operate.
She says the Teit Creek wildfire has not threatened any structures or communities.
For the Shetland Creek wildfire, Coleman says four helicopters are working to bucket and cool the fire behaviour.
“We’ll continue to have helicopters working on the Teit Creek wildfire as well as the Shetland Creek wildfire,” she said.
It’s unclear how many people are affected by the band’s evacuation order.