Residents of Williams Lake, B.C., get front-row view of battle to save their town

WILLIAMS LAKE, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA — Residents of Williams Lake, B.C., got a front-row look at the wildfire fight to save their community, as water bombers swooped low and dropped red fire retardant, crews sprayed structure fires from ladders and RCMP evacuated homes.

“Everybody was panicked, (which was) understandable because the fire was less than a road across from us,” resident Spencer Stratton said, noting well over 100 people had gathered about a block away as the River Valley fire reached the western edge of the central Interior city.

“It was one set of buildings away from us — that’s how close the fire was.”

Residents who were evacuated were told Monday they could return and the BC Wildfire Service said crews were “mopping up” from the blaze.

But Rob Warnock, the director of the Williams Lake emergency operations centre, said in a video posted to the city’s website that those homes remain subject to an evacuation alert, meaning residents must be ready to leave again quickly.

Warnock said the blaze was sparked when a tree fell on power lines in the river valley on the city’s west side on Sunday, while the BC Wildfire Service website said it was suspected to be human-caused.

With the winds at the time, Warnock said the fire “made a big run” down the valley on Sunday.

The blaze, which the wildfire service said had grown to 40 hectares in size, destroyed some structures in an industrial area and prompted evacuations as the city declared a local state of emergency.

Videos and photos shared on social media showed residents watching firefighting planes as black smoke billowed from behind businesses on MacKenzie Avenue where the fire had spread behind a school bus depot. Stratton said the buses were unscathed.

WL Forestry Supplies said in a Facebook post that the MacKenzie Avenue store had been saved thanks to the efforts of fire crews.

“We got lucky. Lost some equipment out back, but nothing serious,” the post said.

The fire is one of more than 340 blazes burning in B.C., with clusters along B.C.’s boundary with Alberta as well as in the central Interior.

Fire activity has been surging across B.C. The Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness said there are about 440 properties on evacuation order and 3,000 under alert, calling the situation “dynamic and everchanging.”

Cariboo-Chilcotin legislator Lorne Doerkson said in social media posts that there had been “explosions” during the firefight Sunday on the outskirts of Williams Lake, and the efforts of the fire crews “had a massive impact.”

“There are some small spot fires, but I will say that there are very many groundcrews and equipment fighting what is left of this fire,” he said in a Facebook post around midnight Sunday.

Williams Lake had asked residents on Sunday to conserve as much water as possible for fire crews taking on the blaze. The wildfire service said Williams Lake was being used to supply firefighting aircraft and was closed to the public.

Some of the city’s residents on Monday still had safety concerns. Stephanie Symons said she had been getting messages and calls from friends “wondering what to do and if it’s time to pack up and go.”

“The fire is still very much active and flaring back up so I can’t tell you much other than we are all stressed and it’s not over,” Symons said in a message. “We just got a severe thunderstorm warning on top of all this, so we are nowhere near in the clear yet.”

Environment Canada issued that warning on Monday. The BC Wildfire Service noted in its situation report Monday that the province had seen more than 20,000 lightning strikes on Sunday. It had previously said fires are showing up in areas that have seen dry lightning strikes in recent days.

B.C. Premier David Eby said Monday the government was bringing in all the resources it can to help people threatened by wildfires.

“It’s an incredibly stressful time for a lot of British Columbians. We’ve got hundreds of people on evacuation order. We’ve got thousands on notice that they may need to evacuate their homes. And this is, unfortunately, the beginning of the fire season that we were concerned about,” Eby said during an unrelated news conference.

A couple hundred kilometres northeast of Williams Lake, the Cariboo Regional District declared a local state of emergency due to the Antler Creek fire, issuing evacuation orders for the District of Wells and the historic mining tourist town of Barkerville over the weekend.

The evacuation was expanded Monday to include the popular tourist destination of Bowron Lake Provincial Park. Not all of the park is under evacuation order, but most of the lakes are included along with the Mount Tisdale Ecological Reserve, an area of alpine parkland.

In the southern Interior, the nearly 200-square-kilometre Shetland Creek wildfire prompted the Thompson-Nicola Regional District to expand an evacuation order along the Thompson River between Ashcroft to the north and Spences Bridge to the south. Highway 1 was closed for 39 kilometres, north of Spences Bridge.

The district said about nine properties have been added to the order that now covers a total of 97 addresses, while residents of another 213 properties have been told to be ready to leave on short notice.

The regional district has confirmed that some structures in the Venables Valley area have been lost to the fire.

Other fires of note are the Aylwin Creek and nearby Komonko Creek fires in the province’s southeast. The Regional District of Central Kootenay has ordered multiple evacuation orders for both fires.

The Transport Ministry said non-essential travel to and within fire-affected areas was being discouraged “to help avoid traffic congestion on evacuation routes.”

The intense fire activity across B.C. has been associated with a hot spell that sent temperatures in the Interior past 40 C in recent days. Environment Canada has 28 heat alerts in place for Interior and eastern B.C., although alerts have been lifted in western regions.

Smoke from the wildfires has also resulted in special air-quality statements being issued for almost the entire eastern side of B.C., from the Washington border to Fort Nelson in the province’s northeast corner.

— By Brieanna Charlebois in Vancouver. With files from Chuck Chiang and Darryl Greer.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2024.

The Canadian Press