Damage in the Venables Valley caused by the Shetland Creek wildfire. (Photo via Venables Valley Wildfire Relief Fund)
While the Thompson-Nicola Regional District’s Emergency Operations Centre is beginning to turn the page after a busy summer, though they’re still urging caution in the weeks ahead.
CAO Scott Hildebrand says while there are no wildfires burning in the Kamloops area at present, the EOC will be reactivated once again if the situation changes drastically given the warm weather in the forecast.
“While fire activity has subsided, conditioned are forecasted to be very warm as we know,” Hildebrand said Thursday .”I think it was 35 C yesterday, so fires are still possible here balance of year.”
As of publishing, there are about 218 active wildfires burning in B.C., 26 of which are in the Kamloops Fire Centre. The BC Wildfire Service says many fires across the province are now in the “mop-up stage” as fall approaches.
Hildebrand told the TNRD Board that while the EOC is on standby, there is a staffing plan in place to the end of October, should it need to be reactivated once more.
“A preliminary debrief took place with our EOC staff recently just about captured lessons learned from the summer to help a more robust process going forward,” he added. “We’re going to do a more formal multi-agency debrief in the coming weeks.”
The most significant wildfire in the Kamloops Fire Centre this summer was the Shetland Creek wildfire near Spences Bridge. While all TNRD orders and alerts have been lifted, that blaze is still listed as being held at about 280 sq. kilometres in size.
According to TNRD estimates, five homes and about 20 structures – which include things like cabins, outbuildings, and sheds – in the Venables Valley area were destroyed by the Shetland Creek wildfire.
“Last week, we were happy to remove the State of Local Emergency in Area I and all remaining evacuation orders and alerts so everything is all clear which is great news,” Hildebrand said.
“The recovery and cleanup effort is ongoing for the Shetland Creek wildfire and the TNRD staff and contractors continue to support our impacted residents.”
Residents in Venables Valley have launched a new website to help coordinate donations as they launch an advocacy campaign as they focus on recovery and rebuilding.
