With more than 380 wildfires continuing to burn across British Columbia, Premier David Eby is expected to tour wildfire-affected areas across the province on Tuesday.
He will be joined on the tour by Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Minister Bowinn Ma and Forests Minister Bruce Ralston.
“Our goal is to reassure people that we will be there when the crisis passes to help them rebuild, but also to get information from the frontline about what communities need to ensure the government is as responsive as possible,” Eby said Monday.
“We’re working closely with the federal government as well on supporting people in the aftermath of this horrific disaster that they’re facing.”
As of Monday morning, some 27,000 people were under evacuation orders in B.C., with more than 35,000 more on standby to leave. At least 50 structures have been lost in West Kelowna, where the McDougall Creek fire still burns.
“These are families that have lost everything,” Eby said. “It is also probably news that is only going to get worse as assessments continue. This is just our first assessment.”
While she didn’t name a community, Ma said some firefighters on the frontlines have watched their own homes burn as they battled to contain a nearby blaze.
“To go through that emotional toil, while selflessly protecting the homes of their neighbours and community members speaks to the character of our firefighting community,” the minister said.
“These brave men and women are demonstrating the meaning of courage in the face of the worst wildfire season in British Columbia’s history.”
While there’s a chance of rain in the forecast in many parts of the province where fires are burning, the wildfire service’s Forrest Tower said the firefight is expected to be “challenging” on Monday.
“Today is most likely going to be the last day of challenging weather that’s going to still have some fairly aggressive fire behaviour potentially,” Tower said in an interview with Global News.
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“After after getting through today, we should potentially receive some precipitation into this evening, into tomorrow, and then much lower wind speed.”
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The Regional District of East Kootenay rescinded evacuation alerts for the Bear Mountain, Lake Enid and Horsethief Creek areas on Monday morning, as well as for the Yearling Creek wildfire. On Sunday, evacuation orders were also downgraded to alerts in Kelowna’s Quail Ridge and University of British Columbia campus areas.
In the Columbia Shuswap region, however, the Bush Creek East fire still rages at more than 41,000 hectares in size, with 385 personnel and 14 helicopters still trying to contain it. Forrest said the shape of that fire — which is not a rectangle or a circle — poses a particular challenge.
“It has a lot of arms at this point, so the length of that perimeter, even if it’s growing 100 metres outwards along that entire perimeter, that’s going to add up to thousands of hectares of growth,” Tower explained.
“So, likely to see some growth in terms of several thousands of hectares once we get some more improved mapping. It might not be in one particular direction.”
That fire — the result of the Lower East Adams Lake fire merging with an adjacent fire — has had “widespread and devastating” impacts in the Shuswap Lake area, he added.
At the briefing, BC Wildfire Service operators director Cliff Chapman said there was a “drop in fire behaviour” in that complex Monday, but aggressive fire behaviour continues in the Fraser Canyon due to sustained winds and the shape of the valley.
The Crater Creek fire by the Lower Similkameen Indian Band and Keremeos has crossed into the United States, he added, but the wildfire service is collaborating well with American crews. The blaze’s encroachment on Highway 3 has not intensified, Chapman said.
Elsewhere, the wildfire service has set up a new restricted area for the Schofield Creek wildfire, burning at an estimated 711 hectares in size north of Cranbrook. The restriction order will remain in place until Oct. 15, unless otherwise rescinded, it tweeted Monday.
The Canadian Armed Forces is also assisting with evacuation staging and other tasks across the province. Their base in Vernon is expected to open on Monday.
As it stands, about 3,500 personnel are working to fight wildfires in B.C., joined by hundreds of members from municipal fire crews and 652 structural fire firefighters — a record collaboration between wildland and structure firefighters in the province.
On Wednesday, 100 Mexican firefighters will arrive to help as well, followed by 200 South African personnel. Australia is expected to commit 18, specialized single resources including division supervisors, equipment branch directors and helicopter co-ordinators, said Ralston.
Many of those resources will be deployed to fires in the Kamloops and Fraser Canyon areas, added Chapman.
Under the provincial state of emergency, the non-essential use of accommodations such as hotels, motels, inns, hostels, RV parks and campgrounds remains restricted in Kelowna, West Kelowna, Kamloops, Oliver, Osoyoos, Shuswap, Penticton and Vernon.
That order remains in effect until Labour Day.
While it doesn’t impact travel throughout the region, the province is asking British Columbians to avoid non-essential travel to the central Interior.
“It’s a very dangerous and fluid situation still,” Eby said. “Please understand this is a very stressful situation for people in these local areas — the last thing they need is disaster tourists coming and interfering with rescue efforts.”
Meanwhile, evacuees are starting to receive phone calls and emails informing them of the emergency accommodations available to them, Ma said.
Tourists may also begin to resume visits in the southeastern part of B.C., she added, although anyone travelling is asked to recreate “responsibly,” check DriveBC for highway conditions, and study the wildfire maps in advance.
“Understand that the risk of new wildfires and changing conditions still exists, and pay attention to the needs of the local communities that you are visiting,” Ma said.
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