The Columbia-Shuswap Regional District has lifted the final evacuation orders in the North Shuswap.

This final evacuation order covered 189 properties that were severely impacted by the Bush Creek East wildfire

“Either they had total structure loss or partial structure loss, and we’ve now been able to remove those evacuation orders from those specific properties,” CSRD spokesperson Tracy Hughes said.

“Those areas needed to be checked out, be made sure that it was safe for people to go on. At this point now, we are lifting those orders so that means those residents can start to proceed with plans to recover from this.”

Speaking on the NL Noon Report, Hughes says the moratorium on building permits in parts of the North and South Shuswap is still in effect.

“There are a lot of hazards that can be created by a wildfire of this magnitude – landsides, rock fall, erosion, potential problems with flooding,” Hughes said. “The idea is that as the geotechnical engineers determine which areas may possibly have hazards, those areas would remain in the moratorium. If there is a low risk area, we’d be able to remove certain sections.”

Hughes says residents in all of these properties have been sent “personal notifications” that notify them of potential hazards that still may exist on the property.

There are now no evacuation orders or alerts with the CSRD or the Thompson Nicola Regional District.

The Bush Creek East Fire is currently being held at 456 sq. kilometres. It means the massive lightning-caused wildfire is not likely to spread beyond predetermined boundaries under prevailing conditions.

There are no evacuation orders or alerts currently in effect in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District.

At this time, evacuation orders are still in effect for parts of Skwla̓x te Secwe̓pemcu̓lecw, with no indication when it might be downgraded.