The British Columbia government is lifting travel restrictions to most fire-affected areas in the Southern Interior.
Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Minister Bowinn Ma said the order will be lifted at midnight for all affected communities, except for West Kelowna.
The order was implemented on Saturday under B.C.’s state of provincial emergency, as the province sought to secure accommodations for tens of thousands of people forced from their homes by an explosion in wildfire activity.
As of Monday, an estimated 27,000 people were under evacuation orders provincewide.
“We know these kinds of orders have an effect on (the tourism sector’s) work as well, and their livelihoods,” Ma said.
“I am pleased to share that the emergency travel accommodation order has had the desired effect that we needed, opening thousands of hotels rooms up for first responders, for evacuees, for critical response personnel to be housed.”
While the order is being lifted for areas outside West Kelowna, Ma said the province is “strongly recommending” people stay away from some of the hardest hit communities, including the North Shuswap, Lake Country and any other community signalling that now is not the time to visit.
B.C. Premier David Eby said that while the worst of the accommodation crunch had passed, the province was still working to ensure people are connected with dignified housing as they deal with stress and tragedy.
He said reports of people sleeping in their cars due to waits to get into accommodation were “unacceptable,” and that the province has brought on extra Service BC staff to reach out to all registered evacuees and ensure they had support. Staff were able to phone 900 people on Monday, he said.
“I know there is a huge amount of stress and frustration for families who have been asked to leave their homes, people who have been asked to give up vacation plans, people who have been directly impacted, who know they lost their home, people whos till don’t know if their home is standing,” Eby said.
“This is such an awful time for so many people. I want to reassure people that I find it unacceptable that any person has to wait to get into a hotel to get the support they need.”
Eby, Ma and Forests Minister Bruce Ralston toured the fire zone Tuesday and met with First Nations leaders, evacuees and firefighters.
The premier said he had an aerial view of the devastation in West Kelowna, where an estimated 90 homes had been severely damaged or destroyed, and saw crews still working diligently on the ground to operate pumps and protect property amid active fires that continued to burn.
In many cases he said he could clearly see the burn line which had been halted right next to people’s homes.
“The devastation for families that have clearly lost everting, homes burned to the ground, it will be some time recovering for community members and for so many affected individuals,” he said.
“What was also evident is even if we get to a couple hundred homes that are lost and families hurt by this is the heroic efforts of our firefighting crews.”
B.C.’s interior is still grappling with numerous large wildfires, including the McDougall Creek wildfire affecting the West Kelowna area, and the Bush Creek East wildfire in the North Shuswap.
Earlier Tuesday, emergency officials said nearly 200 structures had been destroyed by fires in the Central Okanagan.
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