Port Alberni cut off by wildfire, local hotels step up

From pitching tents in parking lots to getting a hail mary favour from a local hotel, people stuck inside and outside of Port Alberni are doing their best to find somewhere to sit and wait out a rampant wildfire.

The Cameron Bluffs Fire has Highway 4 shut down, making travel to and from the small town difficult for visitors and tourists heading to the West Coast.

The wildfire continues to burn out of control along the highway by Cameron Lake. The highway has been closed in both directions since Tuesday night.

⛔REMINDER – #BCHwy4 remains CLOSED in both directions due to the Cameron Bluffs Wildfire.

Detour currently recommended for essential travel only.

ℹInfo: https://t.co/IvVdF3WsUX

An Emergency Travel Button now available on https://t.co/MNovn5LekK #VanIsle #PortAlberni #Coombs

— DriveBC (@DriveBC) June 7, 2023

Port Alberni residents who may have been out of town for work or pleasure for the day Tuesday haven’t been able to make it home just yet, and have had to find alternative accommodations for the time being.

Related articles:

• Detour in place for ‘essential travel’ between Port Alberni and East Vancouver Island

• Vancouver Island wildfire shuts highway to, from Port Alberni

• B.C. wildfires: Donnie Creek growing, Vancouver Island fires spring up

Just a short drive down the Island Highway from Port Alberni, a hotel in Qualicum stepped up to help some people who have been without a place to stay.

Sand Pebbles Inn Manager Janis Kelly says the hotel has kept some rooms off the books for the weekend, in case people still need somewhere to stay, but notes its been pretty full at the hotel since the closure took effect.

“I just saw and I thought, ‘Wow, there’s got to be a billion people stuck there … well we’ll do what we can,'” she said. “It just seemed like the right thing to do.”

Although they ran out of rooms quickly at Sand Pebbles, Kelly says she’s found other ways to accommodate a few more people.

“I’ve still got a guy here that’s a plumber and he’s staying in my office … it’s got a bed and a room, and a shower — so he’s good to go.”

With the highway closed, people who may have been on a west coast vacation or day trip in Tofino or Ucluelet haven’t been able to get past Port Alberni, and receptionist Circe Campbell at the Best Western Plus Barclay Hotel tells CityNews the phone “didn’t stop ringing” for her whole Tuesday shift.

Campbell says there would be a cancellation every five phone calls, and the other four would be people desperately looking for a room for the night.

As rooms filled up, Campbell explains people looking for somewhere to stay became increasingly desperate, trying anything they could to find a place to sleep.

“It was just me working for quite a while and … people are starting to ask if they could stay in our parking lot, people are asking if they could push chairs together in the lobby and sleep there,” she said. “There was nowhere in this town, I was calling around to all the different hotels. I had Expedia open, booking.com, Airbnb, and I was watching them … every time I refresh there’s five less places.”

“Things were booking out instantly, I think it was around like six o’clock that the town was booked up.”

The City adds firefighters, students, the Salvation Army, and other volunteers were all a major part of the emergency response process.

Campbell says things have since cooled off and the hotel has quite a few more rooms available right now, and that’s because of action from the members of the community.

In addition to hotels, the City of Port Alberni says an Emergency Operations Centre was opened to feed and provide cots to people without accommodations, and Alberni District Secondary School “opened to their gym to house students who were trapped” while on a trip.

“It’s always been known as a town with the heart … everywhere you went people were trying to offer something. We have people that worked here offering up their own guestrooms, or offering up food, or offering up like an RV to sleep in. or things like that,” said Campbell.

“I think people really realize Port Alberni was there for them at the end of the day. We’ve dealt with stuff like this before, we’ve had road closures we’ve had natural disasters, so I think we know how to come together pretty well to help everyone out.”

Keanna Labrecque was among those stuck in Port Alberni and says she is scheduled to work back in Vancouver on Friday. Lebrecque says she doesn’t think she’ll make it back in time for work and she’s more worried about Cathedral Grove, an old-growth forest situated dangerously close to the Cameron Bluffs Fire.

“In terms of the fire, it’s sad that this beautiful part of the Island is going through this right now,” she said. “The wind isn’t blowing in that direction, but who knows? It’s still scarily close.”

The Cameron Bluffs Wildfire on Vancouver Island east of Port Alberni. (Courtesy BC Wildfire Service)

According to the BC Wildfire Service, the fire was burning at 140 hectares in size as of Wednesday afternoon, and as DriveBC reports, Highway 4 remains closed indefinitely at Cameron Lake.

An alternate detour is open, but takes drivers through a gravel road with difficult conditions, and is recommended for “essential travel only.”

Updated map of #BCHwy4 detour between #PortAlberni and #LakeCowichan via Bamfield using forest-service and privately owned industrial roads. It has narrow sections, sharp curves, single-lane bridges, challenging terrain, no cell service or gas stations. https://t.co/J7LusOb835 pic.twitter.com/IpOTzQBWsz

— BC Transportation (@TranBC) June 7, 2023