UPDATE (7:30 a.m. Sunday)–A declaration of local emergency has been issued by the District of Port Hardy.
The 16-hectare fire west of Port Hardy has doubled in size in the last 24 hours, but is no closer to damaging homes.
An evacuation order is in effect for the area of Mayors Way and Upper Carnarvon, west end to Park Drive. Affected residents are asked to register at Port Hardy Civic Centre at 7400 Columbia Street. Approximately 100 homes have been evacuated.
About 40 firefighters are building a barricade at the town’s edge to try and protect nearby homes.
The fire in Port Hardy is extremely unusual, said Mayor Hank Bood, as it typically has a wet climate but has not had rain in two months.
He warned residents to obey a campfire ban issued by the B.C. government for the entire province, apart from a two-kilometre strip on Vancouver Island.
“People in the north island need to understand that we are in a very unusual place,” he said. “We’re not fooling around anymore.”
Declaring a state of emergency will allow the district to bill the province for expenses it incurs. Both fires are suspected to be human-caused and are under investigation.
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About 50 residences were evacuated late Friday night as a fire burns 1.5 km away from Port Hardy.
“It doesn’t look good right now,” said Mayor Hank Bood, who went on to say other homes on the western edge of town could be evacuated overnight.
The fire is on the Tsulquate River and began around 7 p.m. on July 3.
Around 40 firefighters are stationed at Mayors Way and Upper Carnarvon Road on the northwest edge of the city, where the fire is closest. They’ll be creating a barricade in hopes of preventing the fire from damaging nearby structures.
But the eight-hectare fire is too big for the crew in place to adequately fight. Water bombers assisted in early evening, but were unable to fly overnight. Additional crews with the BC Wildfire Service headed to the area. Strong winds are blowing the fire southeast, such that they could threaten up to 100 homes on the western edge of the city.
Add it all up, and the town has its fingers collectively crossed overnight.
“We’re hoping it doesn’t go into our town, but it is a possibility,” says Bood.
“The fire is too big for municipal crews to fight.”
He says there are about 20 to 30 homes “in the direct line” of the fire, while another 100 are in the general vicinity.
Deputy Fire Chief Brent Borg says close to 40 members are on scene, and began evacuating homes at Mayors Way and Upper Carnarvon Road beginning around 9 p.m.
Bood says the blaze is not threatening the hospital or municipal buildings.
An emergency centre has been set up at the Municipal Hall at 7360 Columbia Street. In addition, an emergency line has been set up at 250 949-6665 for people concerned for relatives.
It comes on the same day that a campfire ban was put in for much of B.C., and several fires broke out near residential areas throughout the province.
– With files from The Canadian Press
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