BRACING FOR FIRE EVACUATION

North-central residents prepped to go

Tourists are still filling golf courses and shops in Kimberley, but the smoke-filled city’s unique SunMine solar power project is operating at less than half of capacity as nearby forest fires continue to rage.

Wildfires that have destroyed thousands of hectares of trees and filled the sky with thick smoke have put companies in B.C.’s resource and tourism industries on high alert.

“Our main industry is really tourism, you know, mountain biking and hiking,” said Scott Sommerville, chief administrative officer of Kimberley, which issued an evacuation alert late Thursday that remained in place on Friday afternoon.

The city recently signed a letter of intent to sell the one-megawattcapacity SunMine power plant to Teck Resources Ltd., the mining company that owns the retired mine on which it was built three years ago. The deal is to go to a referendum in October during the municipal election.

The project, B.C.’s largest solar power plant, was supposed to generate profits for the municipality, but last year heavy smoke from fires meant it barely broke even and the results are expected to be the same this year given the smoky conditions, Sommerville said.

About 4,360 square kilometres of forest have been consumed so far by the fires, said the B.C. Wildfire Service’s chief fire information officer, Kevin Skrepnek.

A lack of rain in weather forecasts suggest there’s little hope that the fire danger will decrease over the weekend, he said.

“There are areas that are obviously curtailed for harvesting (wood) because of the wildfire conditions,” said B.C. Forests Minister Doug Donaldson.

“At this point we haven’t seen any curtailments as a direct result of the fire, in mills, but if the fire season persists, we likely will see an impact on log supply until we can make it safe to get back into the woods again.”

Industry has been lending equipment and personnel to help build fireguards to fight the fires, he added.

In a post on its website, Vancouver-based West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. says it will keep its B.C. lumber, pulp and panel manufacturing mills operating as long as it is safe, but advises employees to make sure their supervisors have up-to-date contact information in case they have to evacuate.

B.C. mining operations owned by Teck are also not being affected by the fires, said spokesman Chad Pederson on Friday.