When a fire is raging out of control towards a community, emergency crews are doing their best to control a chaotic situation, and ideally, everyone would co-operate.
“We don’t want you to go back into that evacuation area because it’s dangerous,” Duane Tresnich with Central Okanagan Search & Rescue said. “We’re evacuating you for a reason.”
Tresnich said he was trying to control traffic the night the Lake Country fire started, when an erratic driver trying to get into the evacuation zone almost struck him.
“Just missing me as I stepped back from the vehicle, reached Camp Road, turned right, did not stop for the bylaw officer, sent him falling back, then racing up Camp Road, blew a stop sign or stop check with RCMP.”
Tresnich says at one point someone went back into the evacuation zone and pulled his team off task.
“Instead of evacuating an area or letting an area know they were under evacuation alert, my team and RCMP were now looking for someone who snuck back behind what was going on.”
Chief Steve Windsor with the Lake Country Fire Department says looky-loos were also a problem during the evacuation.
“In this case we understand there were some people trying to get in and have a look and take some pictures – this really hampers traffic in both directions,” Windsor said.
Windsor warns staying behind during an evacuation order can actually put people’s property, and their neighbour’s property, at risk.
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That’s because fire retardant is very heavy when it’s dropped. It can knock people to the ground and rip the limbs off of trees.
The BC Wildfire Service will not drop retardant if there is a person on the ground.
“That’s generally their rule, if there’s people in harm’s way they will not drop, so, potentially you could be threatening your home because they’re not going to drop retardant.”
Windsor says adults can stay behind if they choose during an evacuation order but children can be removed by RCMP if it’s deemed they are being put in danger.
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