Fort Nelson is dealing with no shortage of wildfire activity once again as drought conditions in the northeast portion of BC continue to persist.
Northern Rockies Regional Municipality, Mayor Rob Fraser told Vista Radio they are keeping a close eye on a trio of blazes that are along the Highway 97 and 77 corridors.
“The Alaska Highway to the south has a fire burning to it, in the Buckinghorse area there is a fire that is potentially blocking the highway to the north and Highway 77 still has remnants of the Patry (Creek) fire from last year, it is burning up along the 77.”
Access to the Alaska Highway (Highway 97) due to the Summit Lake wildfire was shut down but has since re-opened to single-lane alternating.
An Evacuation Alert in relation to the 26-hundred hectare blaze for the Tetsa River area was issued.
In addition, the Buckinghorse River wildfire eight kilometres west of Highway 97 is burning out of control and is roughly 44-hundred hectares in size.
He added the surrounding community is on edge following last year’s events.
“Last year, I think impacted every resident in our region and this fire season has got people nervous. It brings back those old memories and thoughts. The nervousness that people had and people are stressed they are packing their bags.”
Fraser mentioned seeing people evacuated in places like Flin Flon, La Ronge and Jasper (dating back to last year) is a tough thing to watch.
“We feel for those folks out there. We know exactly what that feels like and it brings back memories of that stress people went through in our community who were away from their homes. We pray for those folks everyday and that we don’t see what happened in Jasper.”
Currently, there are 76 active fires in BC including two blazes of note.
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