WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. — Firefighters on the front lines of British Columbia's raging wildfires are bracing for expected lightning and wind today, with all eyes on Williams Lake where more than 10,000 people are under an evacuation alert.
Residents of the Central Interior community have been told to be ready to leave at a moment's notice, with municipal officials warning that today's ominous weather forecast could push fires toward the city at a rapid pace.
More than 14,000 people have been displaced by about 200 fires burning across the province, and Bob Turner of Emergency Management BC says the province is preparing for the possibility of mass evacuations.
He says if an evacuation order goes into effect in Williams Lake, people will be sent north on Highway 97 to Prince George, but Canadian Armed Forces aircraft and helicopters are also standing by in case airlifts are necessary.
Turner says the province's priority is public safety and he encourages people to heed evacuation orders when they are issued.
But the chief of the Bonaparte Indian Band north of Ashcroft says they defied an evacuation order over the weekend and successfully stopped flames from overrunning their reserve.
"My community has some really skilled firefighters, like a lot of First Nations reserves, and they came together and they stopped that wildfire from wiping out that whole community," Chief Ryan Day said in an interview. "We actually didn't lose anything other than the guys who had livestock, they lost a bunch of range land."
He said 60 of the band's 280 members stayed to fight the fire.
The community doesn't have a firehall, a new water reservoir hasn't been connected to their main supply yet and they don't have a formal emergency response plan in place.
But Day said the experience of the trained forest firefighters in his community and access to heavy equipment from other members' agricultural businesses contributed to their success.
"We weren't prepared for it of course because it happened in a blink of an eye, but we snapped into action and everyone did their part," he said.
Evacuees who are staying in communities from Kamloops to Vancouver can't return home yet, Day said, as hot spots and a fire near Cache Creek remain a cause for concern.
A LOOK AT SOME OF THE NUMBERS TUESDAY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA'S WILDFIRE SITUATION
219: Fires burning in the province.
35: Number of new fires that started Monday.
$53.5 million: Amount spent on fighting fires so far this year in the province.
43,000: Number of hectares burned this fire season.
36: The air quality rating Tuesday in Williams Lake on the B.C. government scale that usually rates air from 1 to 10-plus.
310: Firefighters arriving this week to help from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick and Parks Canada.
10: Firefighting aircraft brought in from other provinces, including seven airtankers.
300: Mounties who are being re-deployed from around the province and another 40 officers are coming from Alberta to lend a hand with policing and evacuations.
10: Number arrested so far by RCMP in the evacuated areas around 100 Mile House and Williams Lake for mischief and break-ins.
2: Officers who have lost their homes in the forest fires.
$575: Fine handed out by the Abbotsford police patrol officer who saw a person throw a lit cigarette from their vehicle on Tuesday.
BANKS, COMPANIES STEP UP WITH CASH TO ASSIST B.C. WILDFIRE VICTIMS
Canada's big banks and other companies are donating sizeable sums to the Canadian Red Cross to help the victims of the wildfires in British Columbia.
About 14,000 people have been displaced by more than 200 wildfires and an official with Emergency Management BC said Tuesday that the situation continues to deteriorate.
The Canadian Red Cross has said cash donations for wildfire victims are coming in at an overwhelming rate from across B.C. and Canada, and with the crisis expected to continue, there is no set goal for fundraising efforts.
On Tuesday, Scotiabank, CIBC, Royal Bank and the Bank of Montreal each said they would donate $50,000 to the relief effort.
The banks also said donations to the Red Cross can be made at any of their branches. Donors are asked to indicate that their donation is for the British Columbia Fires Appeal.
Other corporate donations announced Tuesday include $100,000 each from the Honda Canada Foundation and the British Columbia Automobile Association, plus $25,000 each from Sun Life Financial and CN Rail.
"BCAA has seen first-hand the overwhelming effects of forest fires on communities, including some of the most destructive wildfires in B.C.'s history and we want to help in any way that we can," says president and CEO Shom Sen.
Pierce said cash donations are the best way to help the thousands of people forced from their homes because donated goods often don't match the needs of evacuees and are costly to ship and store.
