The Burns Lake Fire Chief has made his way back home after helping with firefighting efforts in 100 Mile House.
Rob Krause was working with the Incident Command Team with the BC Wildfire Service for the last 6 days.
“I was there as a coach for the incident commander – so the incident commander that’s in charge of the 100 Mile fire – this is his first major interface fire of this size,” says Krause.
Krause worked with the BC Wildfire Service for 36 years before leaving last year to join the Burns Lake Fire Department. He was also the highest ranking incident commander and has fought fires across the country.
“So they asked me to go down and give him a hand. So I did a lot of liaising with the local government and just helping him with a lot of advice and with a lot of the things that came up.”
The fires this year are comparable to others in 2003 in the Okanagan along with fires in 2009 and 2015, says Krause.
“Where this one will fall into the scale will be determined down the road.”
Krause is looking into sending firefighting resources from the village to help with efforts across the province.
However, he wants to make sure there are sufficient resources left at home to serve the community.