Seems some news outlets are reporting Williams Lake as being evacuated. This is completely wrong. Wish these so called professionals would get their facts right and quit tripping over themselves trying to get a "scoop". There is no need for unnecessary panic.
Just to be clear we are on ALERT. Nothing has changed nor is it expected to at the moment.
Blue skies above with some low lying smoke.
Latest updates show containment at previous levels. Should be another update this after noon.
Smoke moving in from the NW, wind from the west. No permits for the 150 issued today or tomorrow. Most likely due to the burn conducted today. The burn was reported as a success. The fire is about 1km from the Chief William camp site.
Beautiful summer evening. Blue sky patchy clouds. Wouldn't know there was a fire threat if you weren't here.
Got a permit to go home for a couple of hours. Grab a few thing, namely my boots. Big toes aren't happy a the moment. The only boots I could find are at least 1 size too small. Got the wife's plants to water too. So far they are hanging in.
Hope the predicted wind doesn't appear. Loon Lake was evacuated and Clinton on alert. So it continues.
Was evacuated again Saturday night. If I'm evacuated one more time I'm applying for refugee status.
The alert went out about 6:00pm. By the time we got loaded, sorted and organised it was about 8. I had to leave one car behind. Took 10 hours to drive what is normally a 5 hour drive to Kelowna. Spent Sunday setting up in my son's yard and registering. When we got here lo and behold they had an active fire in the Lakeland area which is like being in Kelowna without being in Kelowna. Some bone heads decided to have a campfire even though there is a province wide campfire ban in place. It was 60% contained last night so I think that it won't cause any problems.
The fire NW of Williams Lake did cross the river Saturday night. It is currently 7 km from the city boundary. City is and was not in immediate danger, it was evacuated due to fires threating the routes out of the city. Winds are favorable this morning so hopefully they can get the fire on the east side of the river out or under control and make progress on the west side.
The 150 Mile House fire has been down graded to being not a fire of note. Other than not getting regular posted updates this is a good thing. Everything looked ok on Saturday Morning when I checked on my home. Hope it stays that way. A walk around was done in Miocene which is about 10 miles north of me. Early reports are good.
We may hear news of a planned re-entry for 100 Mile later today. I think if 100 Mile can return I will be able to shortly after that as I would have an escape route to the south.
The 150 Mile House has joined the Wildwood fire and the Hawkes Creek fire. So one big fire now NW of my house and NE of Williams Lake. Wind were favorable yesterday but too light to move the smoke out so they couldn't use the helicopter.
Cache Creek will be allowed to return about 3:00 pm.
Still in the process of evaluating 100 Mile House, 108 and Miocene. Miocene will provide an escape route to the north should it be needed. I don't think !00 Mile House will return until they are sure people can get out either north or south. Once these routes are secured I should be able to return. I live on the road going to Miocene.
About 3/4" of rain is forecast for thursday. Winds when I checked this morning were NE and E. Hope they hold and move the smoke out of the fire area NW of Williams Lake.
They've reopened 3 local lakes to the public. The lakes had been closed because some users were getting in the way of planes and helicopters. Fortunately there were no collisions.
Cache Creek was down graded from evacuation to alert. People who returned have been told it is a 1 hour alert just in case the fires should flare up again.
The White Lake fire NW of Williams Lake is now 5km from the city boundary. Ther may be rain tomorrow but it could be in the form of thunder storms. Thursday is supposed to have rain.
Better visisibily has allowed for more accurate mapping and sizing of some of the fires. Spokin Lake fire now encompases the entire lake. I don't know the exact location of the fire but the perimiter is about 1 km south of freinds home. The southern perimeter is 8 miles north of me.
The Wildwood fire which now includes the Hawkes Creek and 150 Mile fire came to within 1 km of me. Again I don't know where the fire is only the area that it has covered.
The White Lake fire is now on both sides of the Fraser River. NW wind now switching to W wind over night. East wind would be better.
Not much to report. Local fire departments are being allowed to go on the Likely road to check for and extinguish spot fires. This is good news as it would seem mop up work has started.
It was announced this morning that the state of emergency would be extended another 2 weeks.
Winds are light right now. Rain forcast for overnight and most of tomorrow.
Hi Tom! That's about the size of it all right. But for the time being I'm wheeling fast enough to stay ahead of it.
There seems to be some misconception as to what the extended state of emergency means. It does not mean all evacuees will stay evacuated for 2 more weeks. It simply means the government can allocate more immediate funds for emergency relief. More of a bookkeeping issue than anything else as all money spent must be accounted for. Each evacuated area will be evaluated and when determined to be safe to return will be allowed to return.
So far in the Cariboo the evacuation orders and alerts cover 24,000 sqkm and 35,600 people. That would be like picking up all the people in Moosejaw and putting them somewhere else. It's pricey to provide the bare necessities to these people so the sooner they can return the lower the cost. The need for caution is there though as they don't want to return people too soon and have to do the evacuation process over again.
So far I haven't heard of any loss of lives. There have been 41 confirmed structure loses.
Tonight we can expect light rain with the possibility of thunder shower. Tomorrow the forecast is for rain most of the day. This should help cool things down. McLeese FD is taking tomorrow "off" as the closest fire is 29km away. This little town is north of Williams Lake and has been on alert most of the time.
In Williams Lake they planned a backburn on Slater Mountain which is in between the fire and the city. I don't know how it went but no news is good news I suppose.
Everything seems to be going ok, they've started to bring back essential service workers and some businesses are receiving permits for their employees. Besides having the fire under control there is a lot that needs to be in place before a mass return can happen. The hospital needs to be up and running, water,sewer, gas, hydro need to be intact, grocery stores, gas station need to be stocked. In other words everything you expect to be there when you get up in the morning needs to be there.
If I had to guess at when I would be returning home my best guess would be this weekend at the earliest.
In case you are wonder about the previous post. It was made by the same guy that created my avatar.
