10,000 evacuees and counting: How B.C.'s wildfire fight took a turn for the worse

You can have as many firefighters as you want and the best technology possible, but on a dry day, there are three simple words that can dramatically change any wildfire situation for the worse. 

"The wind changed," said Al Richmond.

The chair of Cariboo's Regional District, Richmond has been watching over the majority of wildfires being fought across the Interior of British Columbia. 

Sunday afternoon, the wind changed and, hours later, the entire town of 100 Mile House was placed under an evacuation order, with flames less than a kilometre away, and pushing the total number of people under evacuation orders in B.C. to over 10,000. 

"I didn't worry at all, until somebody said the wind was picking up," said resident Tatiana Ruiz. 

"We were at home watching movies, and all of a sudden, they're knocking on the door. We packed up our stuff in two, three minutes." 

'We're ready' 

Ruiz, her family, and close to 2,000 other people drove through the middle of the night, blocked from travelling directly north or south because of the closure of the major highway that goes through town. 

Instead, they were forced to head east on a rural two-lane highway, and then asked to add another four hours to their journey by heading north to Prince George instead of south to Kamloops.

The reason? Kamloops already has thousands of evacuees using emergency services because of other wildfires further south, while Prince George still has plenty of capacity.

"We're ready," said Prince George Mayor Lyn Hall. 

"If we fill up the College of New Caledonia then we have other locations that we'll move into. If we fill those up we have other locations that we'll move into."

A multi-front fight

It speaks to the unique challenge firefighters and emergency officials are facing: There isn't one wildfire.

Instead, there are around a dozen fires of concern over a 500-kilometre stretch in the centre of the province, from Princeton to Quesnel. Each blaze affects a different mix of towns, Indigenous communities and highways. 

"As these fires rage, we are making decisions on the fly every day, every hour of every day, and changing those decisions sometimes in terms of priorities every day as well," said outgoing premier Christy Clark.  

Friday, the priority was near 108 Mile Ranch until a fire near Cache Creek exploded and destroyed a mobile home community and much of the Ashcroft Indian Reserve. 

'We lost everything' says B.C. wildfire evacuee

7 years ago

Duration 0:50

B.C. Premier Christy Clark speaks with a woman from Ashcroft First Nation Reserve whose home was destroyed by wildfires

Sunday, attention was spread throughout the province until the 100 Mile House evacuation.

And Monday, the focus may turn to Williams Lake, the largest city in the Cariboo region, where 10,500 people are surrounded by fires on three sides — including several to the west that were moving towards the city. 

"The threat for us is this huge fire that seems to be progressing in the Chilcotin, proceeding towards Williams Lake. That's going to be difficult to control. There's a lot of uncertainty in that," said Richmond.  

Property loss unknown

It's unknown where the next front will be in the wildfire fight, and it's also unknown how much has already been lost. 

Thick smoke has blanketed much of the region, and it could be weeks before tallies are made and families are informed if they have a home to return to. 

"It's difficult," admitted Richmond. "Some people know they've lost their structures, and others don't. But we have to wait until the point we can inform people in privacy they've lost their homes, and not in a public forum.

"We need to get some of those figures from firefighters, but at the present time, they're focusing on a fire, not focused on diarizing what structures have been lost."

• Premier visits B.C. wildfires, promises $100M in relief funding for evacuees
• B.C. wildfires: What you can do to help

What happens Monday? The first assistance from the federal government is set to arrive, along with firefighters from other provinces.

Just about everything else is in the hands of nature, in a part of British Columbia where small communities are used to working together. 

"We're all finding it a challenge. There's no debate about that," said Richmond, at the end of another 18-hour day. 

"But we're very resilient people up here. We're going to make this work."  

With files from Andrew Kurjata and Briar Stewart

No relief as B.C. wildfires rage on

7 years ago

Duration 1:50

As hundreds of wildfires burn across the province, thousands of people have already been forced from their homes, and many others await evacuation orders.