Interior ablaze
All B.C. wildfire teams in action as Victoria declares provincial state of emergency
BONAPARTE INDIAN RESERVE
— As fire swept through the Bonaparte Indian Reserve, a few kilometres north of Cache Creek in B.C.’s Interior, Chaylene Morgan was on the phone, desperately trying to reach her grandmother.
Morgan, who lives in Williams Lake, was worried after hearing a fire had started in Ashcroft, spread towards Cache Creek and was headed toward the Bonaparte reserve late Friday. She immediately texted her grandmother, an elder of the band, instructing her to pack the essentials, gather her dog, and leave as soon as possible.
Her grandmother, meanwhile, had no idea she was in danger: Neither the police nor other members of the community had alerted her to the fire.
“Nobody from Bonaparte went to check on my grandma to see if she was OK, or needed help. In my opinion, elders should come first,” Morgan said, noting that her grandmother cannot drive, and struggles to hear and walk.
Morgan reached an aunt in nearby Clinton who helped to safely move her grandmother from the reserve. Not long after, Morgan received a photo from a friend, showing her childhood home going up in flames.
“My grandma’s house is right beside. There’s no doubt in my mind that it’s burnt to a crisp now, as well,” said Morgan.
“My heart aches for each and every person affected by these fires. I hope they get them under control fast.”
‘PUBLIC SAFETY IS THE TOP PRIORITY’
The fire was one of 183 wildfires burning across B.C. on Saturday, prompting the B.C. government to declare a state of emergency to allow for coordination of resources from across the province. Eight of the fires, officials said, were threatening homes and other buildings.
Firefighters were concentrating on saving buildings, after an unknown number of houses and other structures were razed, and protecting key transportation arteries.
Evacuations were ordered Friday for Cache Creek as well as 108 Mile, 105 Mile and 103 Mile, while major highways were closed in and out of those communities. Other dangerous wildfires were reported near Williams Lake, Quesnel and Princeton.
Lightning strikes were blamed for many of the new fires, though humans were suspected in several cases.
Two major highways that link up in Cache Cache have been closed by the fire: Highway 1 in several places in and around Cache Creek and Ashcroft, and Highway 97, the province’s main north-south route, from Cache Creek to Clinton. In addition, Highway 5A is closed north of Princeton.
CN and Via Rail officials said the fires are causing delays and reroutings, but the CN and CP main lines aren’t directly affected as they pass south of the fire at Ashcroft as they follow the Thompson River to Kamloops.
“We’re focusing now on public safety, keeping these fires away from communities, protecting transportation routes, things like that,” Kevin Skrepnek, chief information officer for the B.C. Wildfire Service, said Saturday.
John Rustad, minister of forests, lands and natural resource operations, said the province has been in contact with the federal government “in case there’s a situation where we believe we need to bring in additional resources, whether that’s through the military or other purposes.”
He said Ottawa is ready to provide whatever help is needed.
All of the province’s resources have been applied to the fires and they’re making every effort to save lives, homes and infrastructure, Rustad said.
On Saturday, 1,000 firefighters were battling the wildfires with an additional 600 Wildfire Service backing them up. Another 200 contractors were helping.
“But that number is about to grow, likely dramatically, in the next few days,” said Rustad. “We’ve deployed all of the staff we have available.”
He said 260 more firefighters were en route from other parts of Canada.
Premier-designate John Horgan said he’s increasingly concerned about the grave situation confronting the residents of Interior communities.
Horgan said he called Rustad “to offer my unqualified support for his efforts to confront this crisis.”
“The people already evacuated or facing evacuation, as well as our front line firefighters and first responders, need to know everyone in the province is behind them. John and I agree this is no time for politics — we have to work together to provide whatever support and resources are required to help people in the affected communities in the face of this crisis,” Horgan said
The B.C. Wildfire Service rates the fire risk as high to extreme in much of the province and Environment Canada says daytime maximum temperatures will reach the mid to upper 30s in some regions through the weekend.
The last time the province declared a state of emergency was in 2003. That was also because of wildfires.
DYNAMIC, DANGEROUS SITUATION
Firefighters continued to use water bombers, helicopters, and heavy equipment overnight to drop water and retardant on the blazes, which had swallowed an estimated 39 square kilometres between in Ashcroft and Cache Creek and another 18 square kilometres to the north near Gustafsen Lake by Saturday. Both fires were expected to grow significantly as a result of dry and hot temperatures and heavy winds, said Skrepnek.
“It’s a dynamic situation out there and things are happening very quickly,” Skrepnek said. “If people feel they are in immense danger, they should get out.”
By Saturday morning, two other fires had grown to become classified as wildfires of note: a 15-square-kilometre blaze near Princeton, and a growing 1.35-square-kilometre fire near Harrison Lake.
Many of those at the Bonaparte reserve — home to about 120 permanent residents — seemed unconcerned on Friday. Despite the thick smoke, families stood together on front lawns or lined up beside their vehicles, some snacking as they watched the blaze reach the crest of the mountain.
“We aren’t worried,” one resident said. “It won’t come down this way, what’s there to burn?”
Minutes later, they were forced into action as the fire rushed down the mountain toward the community church.
EVACUATIONS ARE UNDERWAY
Meanwhile, the rapidly spreading fire was wreaking havoc elsewhere, wiping out the Boston Flats trailer park near Cache Creek, and two hangars and a house at the local airport late Friday.
Cache Creek Mayor John Ranta said no further structures were lost overnight.
“Things are looking at lot better here now,” he said on Saturday.
RCMP officers continued to knock on doors to urge those among the village’s 1,000-plus residents who had stayed to take refuge at an emergency reception centre in Kamloops.
Gordon Davis, manager of the emergency centre at McArthur Sports Centre in Kamloops, said more than 500 people had registered as of Friday.
“A lot of them watched their homes burn down,” he said. “A lot of them don’t know if their homes are still there.”
Ranta, who also issued evacuation orders as chair of the Thompson Nicola Regional District, said 70 rooms were booked at Sun Peaks, but those would fill up fast and officials were rushing to find space in school gyms and at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops.
According to Ranta, his regional district had to decline a request from officials around 100 Mile House to take 1,200 evacuees from the Gustafsen Lake fire.
“We’d love to help out, but we just don’t have the room,” he said.
In 108 Mile, Rebekah Brown was one of those forced to leave.
She and her husband gathered their important documents and belongings before loading their pets and newborn in the car and heading to Williams Lake to check in to an emergency service centre at the Ramada Inn on Friday. They later went to stay with family in Kelowna.
“Heading back and passing our home was the hardest part,” Brown said. “Staring out the window, watching the flames and smoke engulf my beloved community broke my heart. There were no words, just tears … It feels as if all of B.C. is on fire. It feels like the worst dream that I can’t wake up from.”
WAITING, WONDERING
Gwen Dachsel waited in her home in Williams Lake on Saturday with the doors and windows shut, her car loaded with her belongings.
Dachsel, 72, said the roads leading out of her community have been closed in almost every direction and not knowing what to do is almost as frightening as the fires.
“If we had to really leave town, I don’t know which way we would go,” she said in a phone interview.
“If I saw a flame, I would (feel trapped). Then, then I would panic.”
Her family photographs have been stored away in a fireproof safe, which Dachsel hopes will protect them if the house she has lived in for more than four decades goes up in flames.
“It would be quite a traumatic experience, and for my daughters, too,” Dachsel said.
As barns burned, Cache Creek farmers worked through the night Friday to save cattle and horses from a 40-square-kilometre wildfire — in some cases simply opening gates to let animals flee.
Hundreds of cows were evacuated as a dairy barn ignited on the outskirts of town, said veterinarian Quinn Gavaga, who spent Saturday treating animals within the evacuation zone.
“So far, I haven’t had to put any animals down, but I’m seeing minor burns and coughing,” he said.
Gavaga evacuated his veterinary clinic on Friday afternoon, watching as the fire moved closer as he loaded cats and dogs into his truck. He spent much of the night helping farmers move dairy cattle from burning farms, finally catching a few hours of sleep at 3 a.m.
On Saturday morning, he was helping to evacuate beef cattle from smaller farms.
“It’s the domestic animals and the small ranches that are most at risk right now,” he said, taking a break to speak to Postmedia by phone. “Most of the beef cattle have travelled high for midsummer grazing, so they’re out of reach of the fire.”
Further north, where another huge wildfire raged out of control Saturday, David Edge was hoping to rescue nine horses trapped in a pasture on the shores of Lac La Hache.
“They could be in danger,” he said Saturday morning.
Edge hoped he’d eventually be allowed into the area near the 34-square-kilometre Gustafsen wildfire to evacuate the horses.
Meanwhile, fairgrounds, ranches and farms across the B.C. Interior opened their gates to evacuated livestock. People dropped off donations of hay and water, while volunteers hosed down horses to keep them cool. Gavaga credited a rancher with a water truck for saving hundreds of cattle by bringing a tank into an area where animals were cut off from water.
Homeowners outside the evacuation zones with space for an extra dog, cat, rabbit or bird also offered assistance through a Facebook page set up to help with animal evacuees. A man who kept reptiles said he could take a few more, while another person said she could help rodents.
“People are really coming together,” said Ashley Sudds, executive director of the Kamloops Therapeutic Riding Association, who offered to take in a few horses.
Tiffany Hunko organized a group of people with horse trailers to move animals from Little Fort, a tiny community on the Yellowhead Highway north of Kamloops that had two nearby fires, to communities outside the evacuation zone. She said her husband was evacuated during the 2004 wildfires and remembered the kindness of strangers.
“We’ll help any way we can,” she said.
The SPCA and Canadian Animal Response Team (CDART) were also busy Saturday. CDART has deployed teams to Kamloops and 100 Mile House, said national director Cheryl Rogers. Members were helping animals in evacuation centres and taking reports of animals left behind.
“Once we receive permission to go into the evacuated areas, we’ll be able to check on animals,” she said.
Some animal owners used Facebook to put the word out about animals they’d been forced to abandon. One person said she’d opened the gates to her horse pen in the rush to leave and described three horses. Another person said she was riding her horses out of an evacuation zone and hoped someone with a trailer would pick her up on the highway.
Forests Minister John Rustad said the Ministry of Agriculture was assisting with livestock evacuation, while local evacuation centres were helping people with pets.