For our Canadian Members- a question?

A dear friend of mine lives 30 km from Kamloops. I got an email from her the other day that the province is burning due to a forest fire! I wrote back and have not heard anything. Starting to get a bit worried and cannot find any coverage about it on the news. Can anyone fill me in?

Home > News > World > Article from Reuters a few mins ago

Kev in the UK


Wildfires Cause Havoc in Western Canada
Sat August 2, 2003 09:22 AM ET
By Allan Dowd
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Emergency crews struggled to slow the advance of forest fires on Saturday that have forced more than 3,000 residents to flee their homes in the tinder dry mountains of British Columbia.

Winds fanned the flames of two fires near Kamloops, British Columbia, one of which is feared to have destroyed as many as 60 houses and a sawmill in the town of Barriere, about 185 miles northeast of Vancouver.

Premier Gordon Campbell has declared a state of emergency around Kamloops as crews struggle against fire conditions that some officials have described as the worst the province has seen in 50 years.

The weather forecast does not predict major rain in area of south-central British Columbia for at least several days.

No deaths have been reported, but more than 300 fires are burning in British Columbia, which is about the size of Germany and France combined. Most are small, but more than dozen are large fires and many of those are out of control.

Among the most dramatic fires was a 10,000 acre blaze that began near the town of McLure on Wednesday, raced north through the hamlet of Louis Creek and reaching Barriere about 15 miles away from McLure by Friday afternoon.

Fire officials said the blaze moved so quickly they could not use crews on the ground to fight it, and conditions were so dry from weeks without rain that the wildfire often burned through retardant dropped from aircraft.

Officials have not been able to get into Barriere to do an exact count of the number of buildings destroyed, but local media put the number at more than 60 and a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer said the department was not optimistic about what they would find.

An estimated 3,000 people have been forced from their homes because of the McLure fire, which also closed a major highway, destroyed an electrical transmission cable and forced the Canadian National Railway to shut down its main line.

A fire that erupted near Kamloops Friday afternoon quickly spread, forcing hundreds residents of an outlying neighborhood to evacuate and briefly closing a highway that was the evacuate route for residents fleeing the McLure blaze.

The largest fire now burning in the province was a 13,000 hectare blaze near Chilko Lake in the Cariboo Region of central British Columbia. That fire is not currently threatening any communities.

British Columbia officials are also worried about a large fire near Eureka, Montana, that has threatened to burn across the border into Canada.

In Rocky Mountains of southwestern Alberta, an estimated 100 residents of Hillcrest have been kept from their homes since last weekend by a blaze that had expanded to 54 square miles despite an army of 800 firefighters trying to hold it back

In my thoughts - kev- with familly in Canada

MA, which direction is she from Kamloops? I'm on another board righ now with someone from BC, and can find out which direction the fire is headed.

She lives in Armstrong, her parents live in Kamloops

All right, from what I can see, she is east of Kamloops, and the fire is north of the city. It is apparently visible from the city, but the evacuations are small communities north of there. So people in Kamloops proper are fine for now, and it does not appear that the fire is moving towards Armstrong at all (yet).

But that is all too close for comfort.

There is a number to call to check on evacuations.
1-888-350-6070
But it looks like she should be fine for now.

MA, the last I heard on the news was that the fire was headed towards Kamloops but a strong wind came along and has turned the fire away from Kamloops. I hope this helps, I'll try and stay up to date on the fire and let you know if the direction has changed.

I do hope they will be safe!

April

So do I- I hate forest fires, I know there is always damage to people's homes, but my thoughts go to the animals as well.

Originally posted by hissy
A dear friend of mine lives 30 km from Kamloops. I got an email from her the other day that the province is burning due to a forest fire! I wrote back and have not heard anything. Starting to get a bit worried and cannot find any coverage about it on the news. Can anyone fill me in?

Click to expand...

Here's a link to some news reports on the subject.

http://www.mytelus.com/news/article....icleID=1376660

It's not a pretty situation. I hope your friend is OK.

Here's what someone from BC said on another board I visit:

"Topic: EVERYONE,... do the RAIN DANCE tonight
Maybe not, but if you pray or whatever you do, can you please keep the interior of BC, Canada in your thoughts.
Someone threw a smoke out their window tuesday and within 20 minutes, it started a fire that took over 30 hectors. Its been over 100 degrees for the past 2 weeks and we havent had rain in 20 days, so needless to say, it is very dry. ANYWHO, this fire that started has now burnt down a town, currently burning down a town, a town of 4000 has been evacuated and it just touched kamloops. The area of the fire has now exceeded 6000 hectors. People at my work live in these towns because they are so close and are devestated, plus we have to find accomidations for all the people who have been evacuated and lost their homes.
The fire fighters have stopped fighting the fire and are trying to put as much water around the fire as possible so it doesnt spread more, they arent allowed to fight it anymore because it is too dangerous and out of control. The mountain that I see outside my bedroom window is literally on fire. It is scary because it is coming to the main part of town very fast.
They have declared a province wide state of emergency and the army should be coming in soon to help out.
Now to make matters worse, on the opposite side of town, a fire started there and has now covered 200 hectors. These fires are out of control, and I am afraid that kamloops is going to be evacuated soon because of them. So if you can, please pray or hope that we will get rain soon or the fires will come under control. Thank you"

If you want to see the thread, it's right here. I hope your friend is okay.

Maryanne- I hope that your friend is okay.

Just got the Net back on line-- thanks to the fire.
It's horrible! Heavy blanket of smoke-- we can't see the mountains. We're on a one hour stand-by alert for evacuation. It is a rank 6 fire-- the worst it can be. It's completely erratic-- they have no hope of putting it out-- hopefully only turning it away from communities. People with 30 years experience have never seen anything like it. They can't even use bombers on it most the time
I've been working full time trying to get stuff together. What a job! And all the critters and all! And 1,000s of negatives that are my livlihood! I have a friend with a big stock trailer who'll come get my horses-- but neither are good at that since I've never owned one. But it's high and Sahali should be okay with that.
It's highly, highly stressful and just sickening. I know many who are in the way of it. Yesterday it was coming right at us, then turned but it could turn on a dime at any moment. It's quite horrid!
The whole province is in a state of emergency and has more than 350 fires burning right now. We haven't had any rain for over 45 days!
D


And all of this because of a careless smoker who tossed a cigarette out of a car instead of using the ashtray!

The stories are pretty bad. People drove away with just what was in their vehicles. At least she has time to prepare.

The biggest concern I heard was for cattle in high pastures, they were not allowing anyone back in to open the gates to let the cattle escape. That is really tragic.

I think that the fire is apparently turning away from the city, but these things are unpredictable, and the latest news had 10,000 people evacuated.

depending on the size of the herd and the strength of the fence, the cattle should just trample the fence to get out. That would be the hope though. D's neighbor has to evacuate 60 horses!