Surrey wildfire evacuee reception centre to remain open until at least September 1

The City of Surrey says it will keep a wildfire evacuee reception centre open until at least Sept. 1.

To date, more than 3,600 people have registered at the Cloverdale Arena on 176^th Street.

Two people are currently camping in the RV park next door, but no one has yet chosen to sleep overnight in group lodging inside the arena.

Surrey Assistant Fire Chief Mark Griffioen said that while he doesn’t have the numbers, he admits costs are adding up.

“We have people who are keeping track of the expenses daily and those are being compiled and will eventually be submitted.”

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With waning demand, the reception centre began scaling back operations last week. It is now open four hours a day on weekdays, and closed on weekends.

“It’s a challenging building to keep cool and that’s part of the reason why we chose 9 to 1 p.m. when we decided on reduced hours,” he said.

Meanwhile, Griffioen said the arena will stay open until at least the first of next month but may have to move to another location after that, with the facility slated to have ice installed soon for the coming hockey season.

As of Monday, Emergency Management BC said 6,900 people remained on evacuation orders related to the B.C. wildfires, with a further 26,700 on evacuation alert.

Since April 1, fires have scorched 578,000 hectares of land at a cost to the province of $234 million.

Officials said there remains a possibility for dry lightning this week, but that shifting wind patterns could begin to push smoke out of the Lower Mainland by Friday.