(Photo: Tara Bouvette)

Sun Peaks Resort will stay closed for tomorrow and Thursday for visitors, as the road to the village remains closed because of a wildfire.

There are still 132 homes down the road in Whitecroft that are evacuated because of the Embleton Mountain wildfire.

Mayor of Sun Peaks, Al Raine, says the number of visitors to Sun Peaks had just picked up again.

“Weekend before that was really busy, last weekend was super busy. Lots of people around, people with big smiles on their faces. And then boom. Kind of interacts with COVID and the last 15 months. We saw it all over again in one day.”

In an update today, Sun Peaks Resort says it will give another update on Thursday afternoon about mountain operations heading into the weekend. As it stands now, most of the resort’s operations are closed, but businesses remain open for locals, firefighters and any visitors who arrived in the resort before last weekend.

Sun Peaks is on evacuation alert from the fire. Raine says that is mostly to do with access to Heffley-Louis Creek Road, saying the community is not in imminent risk from fire activity. Further west of the fire, 170 properties near Heffley Lake are also on alert.

Raine says people in his community are aware of the fire risk, and says these days people are more understanding of what an evacuation alert means. He likened this situation to 2003, when the community was put on evacuation alert.

“Everybody was rushing out, and the only way out was down the (McGillivray Lake) forestry road which is a bit rough. You had busses and campers and sports cars. Everyone was out on the forestry road. And then afterwards, we found out that was just to tell you to get ready in case of an order.”

As of late Tuesday afternoon, the Embleton Mountain blaze was still estimated at 466 hectares – the same size it was on Monday. The BC Wildfire Service says the fire has been burning up slope to the west, away from Whitecroft and Sun Peaks.

The service says it’s burning in steep terrain and helicopters have been used to drop water on hotspots.

“Crews are working with the structure protection unit to protect properties and are working along the Heffley-Louis Creek Road to fuel manage the area… Heavy equipment will be working to complete machine guard from Whitecroft to the gravel pit on Todd Mountain Road,” an update from BCWS says.

Whitecroft fire went from 0.2 Hectares to 150. #bcwildfires @Kamscan pic.twitter.com/0bExnhYNR1

— Tara Bouvette (@tarabouvette) July 11, 2021