As wildfires continue to burn in the Kamloops area with hundreds of rural residents evacuated, the Thompson-Nicola Regional District will be hosting a public information session later today for people affected by these blazes.
The information session will happen over Zoom here. The meeting starts at 2 p.m., and people are asked to click on the link shortly before that time.
The TNRD says its staff will be on the call, as well as staff from the BC Wildfire Service, Emergency Management BC, RCMP, as well as Fraser-Nicola MLA Jackie Tegart, local leaders from Lytton and rural areas of the regional district.
This meeting comes as five “fires of note” burn in the Kamloops Fire Centre with dozens others of varying sizes burning in the region.
A new wildfire north of Logan Lake – the Durand Lake fire – forced 166 properties to be evacuated, spanning from Tunkwa and Leighton Lakes, further east to Paska Lake. As of late Friday night it was mapped at 450 hectares, and believed to be caused by lightning.
Evacuees from that fire have been asked to go to Merritt or Chilliwack.
Meanwhile, at the Sparks Lake wildfire, a new evacuation order is in place for part of the Skeetchestn Indian Band. Residents of IR 0 and IR 1 were told to evacuate by 9 a.m. this morning, and to go register with ESS either McArthur Island in Kamloops or the Salvation Army Church in Kelowna.
The human-caused Sparks Lake fire is the largest in B.C. right now, at 31,000 hectares, and 163 other properties also remain evacuated within areas J and E of the TNRD.
At least two properties have been destroyed by this fire.
The Lytton Creek wildfire, which destroyed about 90 per cent of the Village of Lytton on Wednesday night and killed at least two people, was mapped at 8,732 hectares in size as of late Friday night. It’s believed to be human-caused, with reports suggesting it was caused by a fire near the heart of downtown close to the CN Rail track.
CN Rail and CP Rail both have tracks that pass through the Lytton area.
Hundreds of properties have been evacuated including all of Lytton and further north through the Fraser Canyon towards Lillooet. The fire has not jumped the Fraser River but it did jump the Thompson River on Wednesday night, and properties are evacuated just east of Skihist Provincial Park.
Meanwhile, the McKay Creek fire is another massive blaze burning north of Lillooet at an estimated size of 22,000 hectares. It, too, is believed to be human-caused. That fire has forced dozens of evacuations within the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District and five evacuations within the TNRD.
A fifth fire of note, the George Road Fire, is also burning near Lytton at an estimated 350 hectares. It started on June 16, prior to the historic heat wave that hit B.C. in the past week.
Province wide, at time of posting, there are 177 active wildfires. As of July 2, 611 wildfires had burned more than 80,700 hectares of land so far this fire season in B.C.
(Photo: The Canadian Press)