“It was right there on our doorstep.”
That’s from Northern Rockies Regional Municipality Mayor Rob Fraser when describing the Parker Lake wildfire near Fort Nelson, which remains at 12,741 hectares.
Luckily, the community saw nearly 10 millimetres of rain overnight, much to the delight of fire crews.
Fraser told Vista Radio while it won’t allow anybody to return home, it does give on-site crews a better chance of fighting the blaze.
“It did a pretty good job to subdue this fire a little bit. It wasn’t near enough to put it out but it has allowed the wildfire teams to focus some offensive efforts on this fire because they are able to see the hotspots because it has been subdued.”
“The fire was right there on our doorstep and took the efforts of everybody so we were really focused on that knowing the Patry Lake fire was out there but the same wind the made the Parker Lake fire into an emergency also blew the Patry Lake fire way closer to the community.”
He adds they are not out of the woods just yet as the Patry Creek wildfire, which is 25km north of Fort Nelson still burns at 71,818 hectares.
Over 45-hundred people remain evacuated – roughly 3,300 of them are spread out across Prince George, Dawson Creek and, Fort St. John.
On Monday, the Patry Creek blaze prompted evacuation orders for the Doig First Nation and about 80 properties north of Fort Nelson and the Fort Nelson First Nation.
Given how dry the Peace Region has been the past three to four years, Fraser wanted to attack the situation sooner, but to no avail from the province.
“We had quite a fire season last year and we saw holdover fires all winter. Especially with these two that have blown up – we were pushing as hard as we could to say we should do something about it but the province felt the winter conditions would take care of it and that they would be able to get at what was left in the springtime.”
Fraser is doing yeomans work to keep all residents displaced with as much up to date information as possible – even with all the added demands and pressures his job is undertaking.
“I am trying to bring them together and keep them up to speed as to what is happening. It is really important because I am here, I can see what is happening and I understand that they are not home and can’t see what is going on. They are anxious about any kind of news and so that is one of the reasons I am giving as many interview as a I can.”
The rain is expected to give the area 2-3 days of relief.
Something going on in the Bulkley Valley Lakes District you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
