B.C. declares state of emergency
For the second year in a row, wildfires have prompted the B.C. government to declare a provincewide state of emergency.
Doing so allows firefighting agencies such as the B.C. Wildfire Service or public-safety agencies such as Emergency Management B.C. or the RCMP to take every action necessary to fight the fires and protect communities. It also allows for centralized co-ordination of federal, provincial or local agencies.
“This state of emergency improves our ability to increase that co-ordination as we see risk increasing in other communities,” Forests Minister Doug Donaldson said Wednesday.
The declaration is in effect for 14 days and covers the whole province.
Last summer, a province-wide state of emergency due to wildfires was in effect for 10 weeks. Provincial states of emergency were also declared in 1996 and 2003.
The B.C. Wildfire Service said 559 fires were burning Wednesday in all corners of the province, with 31 new starts since Tuesday. Just over 1,800 blazes have been recorded since the wildfire season began April 1.
In northwestern B.C., a 333-square kilometre fire has destroyed more than 40 homes and properties in and around Telegraph Creek, said Donaldson. Nearly a dozen agencies, including firefighters from local First Nations and crews from outside the province, were working to save homes in the community, he said.
Kevin Skrepnek of the wildfire service said more than 1,500 properties were on evacuation order at midday Wednesday, and at least 10,000 were on an alert, with residents advised to be ready to leave on short notice.
“Certainly, given the number of fires we have going on right now, given the fire activity we are seeing out there, and given the fact that we really see no relief from the weather, there’s definitely the potential this season is going to get worse before it gets better,” he said.
The province is waiting for the arrival of 200 Armed Forces’ members.
Skrepnek said most of them would likely be sent to the Okanagan to help with wildfire mop-up.
RCMP employees, specialized services and equipment are being sent out to assist RCMP departments located in communities affected by the current wildfire situation, particularly in central, northern and southern B.C.
Some of those resources include things such as vehicles, supplies and additional officers to help man checkpoints as required or simply as relief for local detachments.
By this time last year, hundreds of homes had been lost to wildfires, and tens of thousands of people had been displaced. The human cost has not been as high this year, but the total number of fires is greater, said Skrepnek.
The most severe losses this year have been in the Telegraph Creek area, which Donaldson visited on Tuesday.
“In the town site we saw the random nature of forest fires ... there’d be a house standing, and three doors down there’d be a house totally destroyed, all that was left was the foundation and some twisted and melted metal,” he said.
Crews were protecting heritage buildings in the old part of town and setting up sprinklers on the roofs of other homes, he said.
Donaldson described the situation as volatile, adding “a change in wind direction could change everything.”
We can almost guarantee that there are fires out there that haven’t been detected yet.
Environment Canada issued air-quality advisories for much of B.C., all of Alberta, and parts of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as smoke from the fires drifts east.
It advised children, the elderly and those with heart and lung conditions to limit their exposure.
The dense smoke also made it more difficult to find fires that were sparked by lightning last weekend, said Skrepnek.
“We can almost guarantee that there are fires out there that haven’t been detected yet,” he said, adding that rain is the only solution to the increasing risk, but that isn’t in the forecast.
“Rain is going to be absolutely critical. That is what we need to see and not just a small, quick event. We need to see a widespread rain across the entire province to alleviate the situation.”