‘Next 48 hours challenging’ for Fort Nelson as ‘volatile’ wildfire activity kicks up: B.C. gov’t
Posted May 13, 2024 7:11 am.
Last Updated May 13, 2024 12:50 pm.
The Parker Lake Wildfire is threatening the Northern B.C. town of Fort Nelson Monday, after three days of steady growth due to prime wildfire conditions.
Emergency Minister Bowinn Ma gave an update on the situation Monday morning, explaining that the next “48 hours will be a challenging situation for the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality given forecasted ongoing westerly winds and extremely dry and volatile fuels in the area.”
“We may begin to see volatile wildfire activity later this afternoon,” Ma continued.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!The Parker Lake fire had rapidly spread to more than 52 square kilometres by Sunday night with the flames only 3.5 kilometres outside the community.
As of Monday morning, the fire was just 2.5 kilometres outside of the town.
“BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) wildfire crews and local fire crews and fire departments from across the province are doing everything they can do to protect homes and the community,” Ma said.
An incident management team, 70 firefighters, 19 rotary wing aircraft and air tankers, and 17 pieces of heavy equipment, along with a further 70 structural personnel and equipment have been mobilized to stave off the possible damage to the town, Ma explained.
“A second incident management team has been deployed to help with wildfires in the Prince George Fires Center. Highway 97 and Highway 77 remain closed north of Fort Nelson,” she added.
“My deepest thanks go to our firefighters, our BC Wildfire Service firefighters and our local firefighters who are working around the clock battling the fires and working to keep the community safe,” she said. “To those who have evacuated, I know that this is an extremely difficult time and I want you to know that supports are available if you need them.”
High winds are expected to push the fire wildfire directly toward Fort Nelson Monday. An initial evacuation order was issued Friday evening, but there are still a small number of people who have not heeded the order. Approximately 4,700 people are under an evacuation order as of Monday.
Leave now, support is available: emergency management minister says
“In light of the elevated risks in and near Fort Nelson, I’m asking those who have not yet evacuated to please do so. We are here to provide any emergency supports you may need including accommodation, food and incidentals,” Ma urged.
Cliff Chapman, the director of provincial operations for the BCWS, shared that while the winds Monday aren’t expected to be like Fridays, which hit almost 70 kilometres an hour, they will hover around 25 to 30 kilometres an hour, “which, with the location of the Parker Lake Wildfire is a big concern for our operational staff on the ground.”
“Those winds are going to be here for the next 48 hours,” he said.
“The fuels are as dry as we’ve ever seen, the wind is going to be sustained, and it is going to push the fire toward the community.”
A fire behaviour specialist for the BCWS said gusty winds predicted for Monday will further fan the the flames.
“It will create an extreme fire behaviour environment that will challenge current control lines and pose a safety concern to our wildfire personnel and emergency services,” said Ben Boghean, who added the winds should ease on Tuesday.
“But there is still going to be a threat in the area until we see some rain.”
With the aggressive wildfire threatening the town, there are still some holdouts refusing to follow an evacuation order for the community.
Ma said the province is aware of a small number of people who have chosen not to evacuate, however, the “vast majority of the community” evacuated when asked to do so.
“We are extremely grateful for the people who did follow the evacuation order immediately,” she added. “It is an incredibly, incredibly difficult thing to leave your home, when you are asked to evacuate due to wildfire due to flood due to any emergency reason.
“I completely understand how this kind of stressful situation would cause people to wonder whether or not they want to stay, this is your home, your life, your your home … I mean we’re talking about people’s entire lives in some of these homes.
“We need people to be safe. We are facing some extraordinarily challenging circumstances up there in the north,” she said.
“We are appealing to anyone who has so far chosen to stay behind to leave now.”
Evacuee Keri Pedersen tells CityNews she and her family left Fort Nelson around 7:30 p.m. Saturday, arriving at Fort St. John around midnight Sunday.
“It was just lineups upon lineups of cars,” she said Monday. “We didn’t really have too much warning to leave town.”
Pedersen says she and her family first heard of the evacuation through Facebook, and about a half hour later received an emergency alert.
“In the span of three hours, we had the fire started and then we were gone,” she said. “We have only seen a lot of smoke, but from what I hear it’s about two kilometres away from town.”
Pedersen explains that once she and her family — including her partner, her almost two-year-old toddler, and dog — got into Fort St. John, they were at the city’s evacuation centre at the arena until about 5 a.m. Sunday before they got one of the last hotel rooms in town.
“We managed to get some important things, like our toddler’s hospital stuff, and some of her toys, and a little bit of clothes, but for the most part we forgot a lot of things just because of the panic,” she said.
Other members of Pedersen’s family also managed to leave Fort Nelson over the weekend, and are now staying at other hotels in Fort St. John.
Keeping up to date with what’s happening in her home town through social media and neighbours who haven’t heeded the calls to evacuate, Pedersen is brought to tears thinking about what might happen in the coming days.
“[We’re just watching and waiting,] I don’t know what we’d do if we lose our home,” she said.
Ma previously took to social media Sunday to also encourage everyone under evacuation order in the Fort Nelson region to get out.
“The situation is evolving rapidly,” she said in a video posted on X. “BC Wildfire crews, local fire crews, aviation, heavy equipment, and structural protection are responding to the wildfire and they are doing everything they can to protect homes and the community.”
But Ma said support staff have been pulled from Fort Nelson because of the risk to the town.
“I want to be clear that no firefighting resources are leaving the area. However, to ensure continuity of operations, the BC Wildfire Service incident command team and the local emergency operations centre have departed Fort Nelson and are in the process of setting up in an alternate location. If you have not left the evacuation order area yet, please do so now.”
The Parker Lake Wildfire is just one of 134 active fires in B.C. Monday. The BCWS says all except 13 are under control.
Most of the fires are holdover blazes from last year burning in the northern of the province. Six fires have started in the last 24 hours.
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