Homes lost due to wildfire near Golden B.C. with evacuation order, alert in place

The Town of Golden, B.C., confirmed on Thursday that six homes have been lost due to a wildfire burning in the Parson area near the B.C.-Alberta border.

The homes were located south of the town in Electoral Area A, according to officials.

Crews are still assessing the situation, however.

Kyle Hale, director of the Golden Emergency Operations Centre, said it has been a challenging 24 hours for everyone.

“Last night, in the worst of it, we had firefighters from our two local departments, Golden Fire Rescue and the Nicholson Fire Department,” he said.

An evacuation order remains for 28 properties, which will likely remain in place for the “foreseeable future” Hale added.

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The evacuation alert covers 1,044 properties are on evacuation alert from Parson River Crossing to Day Road, south of Golden.

The Dogtooth FSR fire is 133 hectares in size.

3:15 Cooler weather improves firefighting conditions in B.C.

Wednesday night “was pretty harrowing,” said Karen Cathcart, electoral area director for the Columbia Shuswap Regional District.

“This fire just took on a life of its own yesterday and there were all kinds of crews and emergency personnel working on it. At one point, because it got so bad, they had to remove, for safety reasons of course, they had to remove personnel.”

Cathcart said the community is stepping up to help each other and it’s heartwarming to see.

In an update posted Thursday morning from the Town of Golden, officials said the fire remains active but the weather is working in crews’ favour.

Highway 95 was closed from Golden to Radium but has since re-opened.