A new advocacy campaign has been launched by residents of the fire ravaged Venables Valley, north of Spences Bridge, who have been hammered by the Shetland Creek wildfire.

An information session those affected was held by the Thompson Nicola Regional District on Tuesday evening.

Indications are most residents appear to be on the hook for clean up, and most likely rebuilding, as none of them are insured due to a lack of fire protection in the area.

“The government, at this point in time, does not factor that in and that’s something I think we need to take a really serious look at and figure out a way to help residents,” said TNRD Area “I” Director Tricia Thorpe.   “Right now, residents are doing their darndest to try and help themselves by starting this fundraiser, the website, whatever they can to move forward and take care of themselves”

Thorpe notes the Venables Valley situation is different from those left dealing with more higher profile wildfires.

“Jasper is huge and it has international attention, Venables Valley is tiny and it’s so easy to forget and yet those people need just as much help probably more as they don’t have insurance where as, I would assume and I hope Jasper forgives me if I get this wrong, that people in Jasper had insurance versus those in Venables,” noted Thorpe.

She also wonders whether there will be any provincial assistance made available for the losses in the Venables Valley.

“They work things like flooding, when we had the atmospheric river but wildfire is considered to be an insurable event and so they do not cover it,” said Thorpe.  “The issue with a place like Venables is there is no fire protection up there and that community is off grid so it is basically impossible to get insurance.”

A new website — venablesvalleywildfire.com — has been launched to help coordinate donations, as well as provide an avenue for advocacy.