Close X
Friday, November 29, 2024
ADVT 
National

B.C. man says Venables Valley locals are piecing together their losses from wildfire

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 24 Jul, 2024 05:01 PM
  • B.C. man says Venables Valley locals are piecing together their losses from wildfire

Ramanath Das said he is aware that the eco-village he and his family are building in Venables Valley, B.C., may no longer exist when they return after being evacuated due to an encroaching wildfire.

“We’re ready to go back and everything is as it was with ash all over it, or nothing’s there," said Das, who is the general manager of Vedic Eco Village.

Das, his wife and their two dogs have been camping an hour away in the Nicola Valley since July 17, after being forced from their home by the Shetland Creek Fire, the same blaze that triggered evacuation orders or alerts in communities such as Ashcroft and Spences Bridge in the B.C. Interior.

He said evacuated valley residents, many of whom live in the Saranagati Hare Krishna village where the Vedic Eco Village belongs, have pieced together that they may have lost their homes and other structures.

Local government officials have said the "aggressive" blaze burned more than 20 structures in the Venables Valley, including at least six homes. 

Several B.C. communities are in the path of fire, which measured about 225-square kilometres on Wednesday. It is one of the most threatening of active blazes in the province, although 60 per cent of the more than 430 wildfires burning in B.C. remain out of control.

Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma told a news conference that there are about 550 people under evacuation order and another 5,000 on evacuation alert as of Wednesday.

She noted the number of people under evacuation alert dropped by about 2,000 since Tuesday after the alert covering Williams Lake was lifted. That change came after crews were able to contain the River Valley Wildfire that crept into the city on Sunday and it is now classified as "being held."

"It is the case that our evacuation numbers right now are manageable for us, but that can change very quickly, which is why we continue to work closely with communities (and) continue to work around the clock on preplanning for potential evacuations," she said.

She noted the province is seeing "nowhere near" the number of evacuations it did in 2023. 

"However, for those individuals who are evacuated, the impacts are equally as harrowing when you are away from your home and you do not know whether your home and all of your prized possessions and your memories have survived," she said. 

B.C. also saw an influx of travellers from Jasper, Alta., after a fire forced park visitors and 4,700 residents to escape from the town with little notice on Monday. 

Ma said the only safe route for 25,000 evacuees was to travel along Highway 16 into B.C.

"Alberta has directed evacuees to three emergency reception centres, one in Grand Prairie, one in Calgary, and another in Edmonton," she said, noting B.C. has worked closely with Alberta to assist them in their evacuation efforts.

The BC Wildfire Service reports that 80 per cent of the current fires were started by a series of lightning storms that swept across the province in the last few weeks.

Forests Minister Bruce Ralston said during the news conferencethat B.C. is facing storms, wind, lightning and drought, and "it is clear climate change is arriving faster than predicted."

But, he said, some respite is on the way in the north, where rain and cooler temperatures are forecast.

The BC Wildfire Service also said in its report on Wednesday that much of the province is returning to more seasonable temperatures with the exception of the southeast where hot and dry conditions persist. 

"By Thursday, we will be seeing the coolest temperatures in over a month across B.C.," it said. 

At an unrelated news conference Wednesday, Premier David Eby said the province is doing everything it can to adapt and apply lessons learned from last year’s record wildfire season.

"We are seeing more extreme fire seasons every single year," he said.

"We had a bunch of fires burning underneath the snow in British Columbia, something I didn't even know was possible, and it underlines some of the scale of the challenge that our firefighting crews face out there in order to be able to learn from last year's record season and be ready for this year — as ready as we could be."

On the line fighting the Shetland Creek fire, crews were using heavy equipment on the mountain slopes above Spences Bridge to prevent the blaze from burning toward the southern Interior community.

Jeff Walsh, an incident commander with the BC Wildfire Service, said in a video posted Tuesday that hot and dry conditions coupled with gusty winds have fuelled erratic and aggressive behaviour on the fire, driving its spread to the north.

Ma said during the news conference that the province is focused on the wildfire fight and returning people, like Das, safely to their communities. Until then, she said, the province won't be able to assess the damage, but regional districts may release their own information.

Das said that once he is clear to go home, he plans to take matters into his own hands. He said the group had already been preparing to build homes “in the ground with living roofs,” and any structural lost would only speed up that process.

“The structures come and go,” he said. “I had plans to dig in and make an earth home, and as soon as they let us back, I’m going to be digging in the earth.”

MORE National ARTICLES

Search underway for two kayakers reported missing near Sidney, B.C., say RCMP

Search underway for two kayakers reported missing near Sidney, B.C., say RCMP
The Sidney/North Saanich RCMP is asking for the public's help locating two men who went missing while kayaking from D'Arcy Island to View Beach on Saturday afternoon. The RCMP say the men were in a teal blue fibreglass, two-person, tandem kayak. They are identified as Daniel MacAlpine, 36, and twenty-six-year-old Nicholas West.

Search underway for two kayakers reported missing near Sidney, B.C., say RCMP

Woman dies in pedestrian fatal collision on Highway 11 near Abbotsford, B.C.

Woman dies in pedestrian fatal collision on Highway 11 near Abbotsford, B.C.
The Abbotsford Police Department says it is investigating a fatal collision involving an unidentified female on Highway 11, known locally as the Abbotsford-Mission highway. Police say the collision occurred Saturday night in the 5300 block of Highway 11.

Woman dies in pedestrian fatal collision on Highway 11 near Abbotsford, B.C.

'It was joy': Trapped B.C. orca calf eats seal meat, putting rescue on hold

'It was joy': Trapped B.C. orca calf eats seal meat, putting rescue on hold
A rescue operation for an orca calf trapped in a remote tidal lagoon off Vancouver Island has been put on hold after it started eating seal meat thrown in the water for what is believed to be the first time.

'It was joy': Trapped B.C. orca calf eats seal meat, putting rescue on hold

First Nation solar farm in B.C. expected to save 1.1 million litres of diesel a year

First Nation solar farm in B.C. expected to save 1.1 million litres of diesel a year
Nearly $16 million in federal and provincial funding is going toward the solar farm in Anahim Lake, home to the Ulkatcho First Nation, where power is currently diesel generated.

First Nation solar farm in B.C. expected to save 1.1 million litres of diesel a year

Crash at Prince George Walmart

Crash at Prince George Walmart
Mounties in Prince George are investigating an early-morning crash of a vehicle hitting the side of a Walmart.  Police say when officers arrived at about 2:30 this morning to find a young driver, with the person's family already on the scene.

Crash at Prince George Walmart

Fraudsters posing as cops in Richmond

Fraudsters posing as cops in Richmond
Mounties in Richmond are warning the public about fraudsters posing as police officers demanding money.  R-C-M-P say they’ve received seven reports involving criminals posing as Chinese police or government officials who demand money from victims in the last two months.   

Fraudsters posing as cops in Richmond