An evacuation order has been issued for homes near Little Bobtail, Naltesby and Norman Lakes due to a wildfire that sparked in the area this weekend.
Members of the RCMP are going door to door expediting the process and shelter is being provided at the Emergency Social Services Centre at the Vanderhoof Arena.
The Little Bobtail Lake fire had ballooned to 2700 hectares in size since being discovered 2.5k south of Norman Lake on Saturday, about 50k southwest of Prince George.
26 firefighters, 4 helicopters and 5 pieces of heavy equipment are currently fighting the blaze, but Wildfire BC spokeperson Jill Kelsh says that they have additional resources on way to the fire today. Over 100 additional staff, a specialized incident management team and other support staff are currently en route. Structural Protection Units have also been deployed.
Hot, dry and windy conditions have proved to be a challenge for wildfire crews. The Wildfire management branch is reporting on their website the blaze is 0% contained. The cause is still under investigation, but it suspected to be human caused.
The Regional District of Fraser for George has issued their own evacuation order for 130 properties, although most of them are leisure properties and they estimate under ten are full time residents. An alert has been issued for homes in the Bednesti Lake, Berman Lake and Dahl Lake Road areas.
“This fire is extremely volatile, and was we saw yesterday can grow quite quickly.” Fraser-Fort George spokesperson Rennee McCloskey said “It tripled in size yesterday and we expecting something similar to that. So we want to make sure that residents within the ‘alert area’ are taking immediate action to ensure they are prepared.”
The full evacuation order can be found here.
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