HOPING FOR THE BEST, PREPARING FOR THE WORST
Interior residents cope with wildfires still raging
Geremy Murphy and Laird Tutte are having a coffee in the Tim Hortons parking lot, relaxing on the back of Tutte’s truck.
They’re sizing up the situation here, where there is an evacuation alert in place and four major fires in the surrounding area.
Both are worried about the fires and have made preparations to leave if necessary.
But late Wednesday afternoon their concerns abated somewhat as the thick, smoky haze cleared considerably compared to earlier in the week and there was word firefighters were making some progress.
They were, however, worried about a forecast for more lightning this afternoon, which could spark additional blazes.
“I don’t want to leave and won’t unless we get the knock on the door,” said Tutte, 26.
Murphy, 24, said there was a steady stream of traffic heading north when the alert was issued Monday, but it had slowed considerably.
There were few vehicles heading north on Highway 97 on Wednesday afternoon.
Both Murphy and Tutte have loaded up their trucks with valuables, such as tools and rifles.
Tutte also has a dirt bike in his truck. And at his home, just west of town, he has another older truck loaded with a trailer and 14foot aluminum boat ready to go. His family has another truck and trailer loaded as well.
Tutte, a logger for Colebank Enterprises, was pushed out of the bush a week ago because of the wildfire risk.
Murphy said he moved some of his valuables into his garage in town when the situation seemed calmer, but is ready to load those up at a moment’s notice. Earlier in the week, he was worried about fire moving toward his home from behind Fox Mountain.
He has moved his grandparents, Gilbert and Yvonne, from their small acreage southeast of town that was threatened by fire.
Murphy left the Mount Polley gold and copper mine, where he works as a haul truck driver, on Friday when a lightning storm lit a number of fires.
“It was pretty intense,” he said. “You could see 30- to 40-foot flames when you looked down the road from my grandparents’.”
Luckily the wind seemed to push the fire away from their place.
He plans to check up on it today, but won’t be staying out there because of the continuing fire risk.
At the Sandman Inn, Victor Baker and Josh Lebedin were taking a well-deserved break after working up to 15-hour days since Friday fighting fires initially near 150 Mile House, to the east, and now near the Williams Lake airport.
Both work for private firefighting contractor Clearwater Wildfire Service and got the call Friday afternoon to come fight fires in the area as part of a 20-person crew.
Earlier Friday, Baker had driven from Quesnel, where he runs a skidder in a logging operation, to his home in Clearwater. He said there was no fire activity then, but when he came back, lightning had started fires throughout the valley.
“It looked like Armageddon,” said Lebedin, who was travelling with Baker.
Both say the work has been going well. They have been putting up firebreaks and using controlled burns to create an area where there is no fuel for the fires to burn.
Still, Baker, who has 24 years of experience fighting fires, said he believes it will be a bad year. “It’s tinder-dry,” he said. Williams Lake issued a statement Wednesday saying the wildfire situation in the area and the evacuation alert were unchanged.
Fire information officer Kevin Skrepnek said the wildfire service is expecting the hot, dry weather to continue and there is potential for lightning in the Cariboo.
He said the lightning is expected to come with rain, but also with wind, which is a big challenge when it comes to fire growth.
Robert Turner, deputy minister for Emergency Management B.C., said overall evacuee numbers in B.C. remain unchanged.
According to the City of Prince George, there are nearly 5,000 evacuees registered at the Emergency Reception Centre at the College of New Caledonia — including about 1,000 children.
There are 183 fires burning across the province.
Twelve of those fires started Tuesday.
Skrepnek said this fire season has been stressful so far, but even with the large number of fires and evacuations there have been no major injuries or fatalities.
“I think we’ve done the best job we could, kind of, given the cards we were dealt,” Skrepnek said.