At least seven homes have been destroyed by an aggressive wildfire just outside of Cranbrook in southeastern British Columbia.
Wildfire officials said Wednesday that the St. Mary’s River fire, which is burning primarily on ʔaq’am reserve land about 10 kilometres northeast of the East Kootenay community, had grown to 850 hectares in size.
ʔaq’am Nasu?kin (Chief) Joe Pierre said the homes that burned down represented about 10 per cent of residences in the tight-knit community.
“It is quite devastating,” he said. “We have approximately 95 per cent of the community evacuated or under alert right now. So, we have many, many people out of their homes,” he added.
About 95 people have registered for emergency social services, which have been extended through next Thursday and are being delivered by the Red Cross, according to the Regional District of East Kootenay.
Early Thursday, the Regional District of East Kootenay issuing a new evacuation order for an additional 15 properties in the Woods Corner East Area.
Making matters worse for the ʔaq’am, Pierre said the band has been told there are several bogus GoFundMe campaigns circulating, claiming to be raising money for the community.
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“It just makes me sick, what folks are trying to do with our situation,” he said. “Our community is not using GoFundMe in any way. If people are interested in making a financial donation to our community, they can do it through our administration office.”
Cranbrook Fire Chief Scott Driver held back tears as he relayed the details of the municipal fire department’s efforts to protect the community Monday, when the fire first broke out.
“We’re absolutely heartbroken for the loss your community has experienced,” he said. “I just want to say I’m really proud of my staff for the work they did and their ability to have a positive impact in a really, really terrible day. we were able to save homes and we were able to get the community really safely, and that was our main goal.”
Scott said fire crews arrived on the reserve around 1:30 p.m. and quickly discovered fires burning away from downed power lines in two areas.
Crews were forced to hold back at one site until BC Hydro could shut down power, he said. Meanwhile, band officials were rushing to phone and knock on residents doors to get them out as quickly as possible.
“The fire almost looked like it was spreading out in fingers like an excited octopus, and the wind was just pushing those fingers in all directions,” Scott said. “Very, very challenging for staff and certainly for community members who were trying to find a way out.”
Once the power was off and crews were able to access the community, the BC Wildfire Service focused on the wildland fire, while the municipal department focused on trying to save as many homes as possible.
“At that time it was very obvious that there were multiple structures involved in fire and many more structures that were close to being involved,” he said.
Daniel Klein with the BC Wildfire Service said that as of Wednesday, there were between 80 and 100 personnel on site, including heavy machinery operators, structure protection and air crews.
The fire remains primarily on reserve land and is growing towards the north, Klein said.
“Our main objective … continues to just be structure protection and structure defence as a priority,” he said. “We’ve done structure protection on any homes that weren’t affected on day one.”
The wildfire service is also drafting plans to protect structures and critical infrastructure outside the fire perimeter in case it spreads, and is hopeful it can conduct planned ignitions to help contain the fire on its west, north and east flanks.
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