Friday, August 31, 2018 | Your community newspaper since 1916
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Exercising her creativity Eesha Dhanjal, 8, uses water colours to paint a picture of a mermaid on Thursday morning at Creativity Camp in Two Rivers Gallery.
Evacuation orders partially rescinded in Bulkley-Nechako Nine evacuation orders issued by the Bulkley-Nechako Regional District have been partially rescinded over the last week, leaving board chair Bill Miller in more of an upbeat mood. “It’s so much of a relief that I’m signing rescinds rather than orders,” he said over the phone from Burns Lake. As of Wednesday, the number of properties under evacuation order stood at 758, down from 1,024 as of April 22. The number of properties on evacuation alert was 1,422 as of Wednesday. Since Saturday, orders related to the Nadina Lake, Island Lake, Shovel Lake, Purvis Lake, West Babine River, Tezzeron Lake and the Discovery Creek-Germansen Landing wildfires were partially rescinded. As well, an evacuation alert for the Sakeniche wildfire was partially withdrawn. Miller credited the cooler weather for much of the turnaround. But he added firefighters’ progress on the Shovel Lake and Island Lake wildfires has also been a major reason. “Certainly the fire front is significantly smaller but also in the areas that were at risk before, they either got good guards on or they’re burnt out,” Miller said. As of midday Thursday, the Shovel Lake fire near Fraser Lake measured 92,255 hectares and was 20 per cent contained and the Island Lake fire south of Francois Lake was at 20,468 hectares with no percentage in terms of containment provided. The emphasis has been on getting people back in their homes
as soon as it is safe, Miller said. “Even if you choose to stay in the evacuation order area, it’s very disruptive to your life,” Miller said. “You can’t come and go freely. You have all kinds of issues.” He said the sky has been “pretty clear” in Burns Lake over the last couple of days as the wind has moved smoke out of the area, although he added the situation remains not as good south of Francois Lake. “I think we are on the right trend, we are on the right day,” Miller said. “Pretty much every day we’re seeing change and it’s getting better.” B.C. Wildfire Service information officer Kevin Skrepnek expressed much the same view for most during a teleconference with provincial media on Thursday, but tempered his comments with respect to the Central Interior. He said Friday “could be a potentially challenging day in the north” and warned of winds gusting as high as 60 km/h. “So we could see an increase in fire activity in some of our incidences in Central B.C.,” he said. And while rain is expected to follow for most of the province, “it looks like that central part of the province is not going to get the same level of relief as elsewhere.” Relatively dry conditions are expected to return after the weekend, Skrepnek added. He urged campers heading out into the woods for the long weekend to avoid areas where fires are raging and noted campfires remain banned for most of the province.
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CP FILE PHOTO
Ash covers the ground in an area burned by the Shovel Lake wildfire near Fort Fraser on Aug. 23.
Wildfires to be major issue at UBCM conference Jennifer SALTMAN Vancouver Sun As more than 560 wildfires burn across B.C. and most of the province is blanketed in smoke, local governments in the Interior are appealing to the federal and provincial governments for help to protect their cities from future fires. The appeals come in the form of resolutions that will be presented at this fall’s Union of B.C. Municipalities conference. The Thompson-Nicola Regional District wants to see the province provide funding to rural and First Nations fire brigades and departments for emergency training, equipment and response capac-
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ity with respect to rural-urban wildfires. Regional district chair John Ranta said a number of small fire brigades that have lost their funding in recent years due to provincial policy changes and liability concerns are at risk of shutting down. These firefighters – sometimes just one person with a hose and a water tank on the back of their pickup truck – are on the ground and can deal with a fire before it gets out of hand. “It certainly puts houses and people at risk in the rural areas if they do shut down – I hope they don’t,” Ranta said. “No one is doing bake sales these days to support a fire department. The province should be funding
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the rural brigades because they do provide a valuable service.” On Aug. 24, during a visit to Prince George, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged that there are gaps in resources for municipalities, which work with the province, and First Nations, which are a federal responsibility. He said more work needs to be done to make sure everyone is equally protected. “Hopefully, his comments will be taken by the staff representatives in the federal government and result in some liberation of funds, but there’s only so much funds and so much capacity for the taxpayer to accommodate the needs of the public,” said Ranta. — see ‘MAYBE THE, page 3
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