The concern is mounting for those living within the Nechako Lakes riding of BC Liberal MLA John Rustad.
He has been in contact with a number of people who are on pins and needles right now due to the volatility of some of the fires.
The Shovel Lake and Island Lake fires remain the most concerning.
Rustad says he’s been in contact with First Nations leaders, one of which was caught in a scary situation.
“I was speaking with one First Nations chief last night who had some people up at Ooona Lake and he went up there in a panic and there was nobody out from preventing the people from entering the evacuation area so he managed to get all his people out but he fears some of the structures were lost overnight.”
He remains concerned about the state of the Shovel Lake blaze, which is burning at 31,500 hectares.
Rustad says fire suppression efforts have been stifled as a result.
“The real challenge they have had is the water bombers are being grounded because there is so much smoke in the area and poor visibility, it’s making it a real challenge to fight this fire.”
While this year’s wildfire season isn’t quite as close as last year’s record-breaking performance, the blazes are more problematic because of how spread out they’ve become.
“It’s not quite the scale as last year but it’s worse in many ways because the fires are so spread out and we have so many active fires across the province and I know the firefighters are doing everything they can but we need more resources.”
“The federal government has responded in bringing us the troops, that’s going to be a good start but boy oh boy we are short on the ground within the fires in my area.”