Wildfire in southern B.C. threatens dozens of people
The fire trapped vacationers and employees of Cathedral Provincial Park.
British Columbia continues to be plagued by wildfires. The number of fires in the province crossed the 400 again over the weekend, and only firefighters have tackled a fraction of them, with a fire in the south of the province putting dozens of people at risk in Cathedral Park.
An aerial assessment is currently underway in southern B.C. of a wildfire that is actively growing, trapping dozens of campers in a park southwest of the village of Keremeos.
Okanagan-Similkameen Regional District information officer Eric Thompson told media that about 80 people are trapped in Cathedral Provincial Park because the Crater Creek fire is blazing next to the only road that connects the park to other neighborhoods, blocking an escape route out of the danger zone.
Thompson said provincial wildfire service officials and regional district officials are working on an aerial assessment to determine how best to evacuate vacationers and staff at Cathedral Lakes Lodge from the dangerous area. Those who remain in the Cathedral Provincial Park area have been contacted and advised to stay safe, i.e., take shelter indoors while specialized services think through an evacuation plan.
On Tuesday, the Casper Creek and Gillanders Creek fires had a combined area of 11 square kilometers and now the fire department estimates it has grown to 100 square kilometers. An evacuation order has been issued for the area. Another fire burning west of Lillooet also became more dangerous Tuesday, leading to renewed evacuations of residents in the communities of Shalalth and Seton Portage, which are located on the shores of Seton and Anderson Lakes.
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