An evacuation order has been issued due to a large wildfire in B.C.’s Cariboo region, covering 150 parcels of land and multiple First Nations reserves.
The Ulkatcho First Nation and the Cariboo Regional District issued the evacuation order for a swath of properties east of Tweedsmuir Park and just north of Anahim Lake on Tuesday afternoon.
Evacuees have been told to head east via Highway 20 and head to Williams Lake, about 320 kilometres northeast of Vancouver as the crow flies.
The Beef Trail Creek wildfire covers an area of about 60 square kilometres as of Tuesday night, nearly 15 times the size of Stanley Park in Vancouver.
Mikhail Elsay, a fire information officer with the B.C. Wildfire Service, said the fire’s size is expected to increase in the days ahead amid hot conditions in the Cariboo area.
“The conditions are extremely challenging out here,” he told CBC News.
“There’s the summer drought that we’re dealing with, combined with just extremely hot and dry and windy conditions everyday, which are challenging the crews’ actions on the ground.”
The Ulkatcho First Nation & Cariboo Regional District have issued an Evacuation Order for the Beef Trail Creek area due to <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/BCWildfire?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#BCWildfire</a>. Impacted people must leave the area immediately. Evacuees, proceed to <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/BCHwy20?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#BCHwy20</a> & head east to <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/WilliamsLake?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#WilliamsLake</a>. More info & map:… <a href=”https://t.co/81gujPnko2″>https://t.co/81gujPnko2</a> <a href=”https://t.co/uT9yO7hDPQ”>pic.twitter.com/uT9yO7hDPQ</a>
The fire led to the nearby Highway 20, just east of Bella Coola on the Central Coast, being closed overnight on Monday. It reopened on Tuesday evening.
However, DriveBC warned there was limited visibility due to the nearby wildfire, which is suspected to have been sparked by lightning last Wednesday.
Elsay said most of the firefighting work is attempting to stop the blaze from spreading to the south and east, towards Highway 20 and Anahim Lake.
The B.C. Wildfire Service is tackling the blaze with the aid of helicopters and said an area restriction order is in place around the blaze.
An area restriction is a legal order that bans public access in order to protect firefighting operations.
Later on Tuesday evening, the Cariboo Regional District issued evacuation alerts for 301 structures to the southeast of the evacuation order area.
An evacuation alert means that residents should be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice, while an evacuation order means residents should leave immediately.
