Wildfires are still wreaking havoc across B.C. with a new evacuation order issued Wednesday night for a fire that’s been burning for weeks but has now taken a turn for the worst.
The Lower East Adams Lake fire has grown to more than 2,500 hectares, and the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District issued an evacuation order for 92 properties on Rawson Road, along Adams Lake, north of Chase.
The regional district also issued an evacuation alert for the Northern Reach of Tsutswecw Provincial Park. There are no residences in this area.
Wayne Bilawchuk, president and emergency coordinator for Dorian Bay, a community of 35 lots on the east side of the lake, said the fire sprung up there on July 12.
“Today it jumped south and ripped through the edges of our community and actually passed into the next community,” he told Global News Wednesday.
But he said residents have been trying to warn fire officials for weeks.
“That’s pretty frustrating for us because we’ve been trying to get people’s attention for weeks now and especially in the last couple of days. we kind of foresaw this happening,” he said.
“We got some engineers and some smart people in our community and we’ve been trying really hard to communicate our concerns and I can say, hand on heart… that this didn’t have to happen.”
He said staff at the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District has been great but he said the BC Wildfire Service staff has not heard their concerns.
Forrest Tower with the BC Wildfire Service said an incident management team has been on the fire since July 25 but none of the projection models showed any shift in winds, which occurred on Wednesday.
The fire had seven days of being stable on the southern flank, Tower explained, and while it was active in the north there was no growth on the fire for 10 days. He said projections were only done on Tuesday and none of the models showed any change in wind direction.
Tower said the area experienced an anomalous wind event and winds shifted 180 degrees.
Once they shifted, there was a full response from crews, he added.
Bilawchuk said, at least, no properties have been lost so far from what he knows.
“But that didn’t have to happen,” he added. “Somebody has to be held accountable.”
Bilawchuk did say the firefighters on the ground and the crews that showed up Wednesday have been fantastic and they are working hard to battle the fire.
Tower said crews were not able to work on the steep slope as a precaution as it was not safe and heavy equipment is unable to work there. From an aerial perspective, there was always a full response, he added.
“If there was a forecast for northerly winds, that would have changed the modelling as well,” Tower said.
The public is asked to stay off the lake to support the aerial firefighting efforts.
The Adams Lake Ferry is no longer transporting anyone from the public to the east side. The ferry remains in service for BC Wildfire crews and first responders only.
The Downton Lake fire continues to be challenging for crews.
That fire is burning roughly 100 kilometres north of Pemberton and has burned more than 2,500 hectares of land and damaged a number of structures.
The BC Wildfire Service said those impacted are both primary and secondary residences, such as outbuildings and sheds on the southwest side of Gun Lake.
“I don’t have an exact number right now, my understanding is there are some primary structures and quite a few secondary structures as well, outbuildings and stuff like that,” Aydan Coray with the wildfire service said.
The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District will be conducting damage assessments when it is safe to do so.
Meanwhile, both fires are classified as out of control and believed to have been caused by lightning.