1800 properties on evacuation alert as growing blaze near 100 Mile exceeds 1,200 hectares

A wildfire near the Gustafson North Forest Service, just west of 100 Mile House is 0% contained and is continuing to grow.

BC Wildfire Service as of Friday, July 7 at 8:30 am estimate the size of the fire to be 1,200 hectares.

“Crews and heavy equipment worked through the night to build containment lines along the eastern flank of the fire from the 1100 Road to the Helena Lake Road. These lines are currently being reinforced by ground and air resources,” the Service said on their website.

120 firefighters as well as a 25-person Incident Management Team and support staff, 4 helicopters, air tankers, and 15 pieces of heavy equipment will be on site today.

As for evacuation alerts, the Cariboo Regional District says they will be expanding. Area G Director Al Richmond gave this statement at about 8:30 am:

“What we have is a fire that’s grown in size overnight to about 1,230 hectares. There is a fire guard that’s been established around portions of the fire but, as a precaution, we will be shortly issuing an evacuation alert, which is put people on notice that they should be ready to evacuate their homes if necessary. Those areas will include areas of the 105 and the 108 founded by Highway 97. There’s also some areas to the north where we will be issuing a further evacuation alert at this time. This is largely precaution area because we can’t predict the winds. The Forest Service is concerned about changing winds.

Crews are on the ground overnight but we’re still very concerned. Again, it’s an alert, it’s not an evacuation order. This will take into account probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 1800 properties that we’re currently putting on alert.

I am pleased to report that the efforts of the 108 Department last night to put some sprinkler protection units on properties around Abel Lake. The fire is actually past those those properties now and the homes are intact because of those technical sprinkler units so they are having an effect. We have more sprinker units coming and more equipment coming in.

Again, we ask people to refrain from going to the area to look around. I would suggest that people best stay home, prepare themselves for the eventuality that they may have to leave their homes. For the time being, this is  precautionary but we’ll send out more details shortly.”

100 Mile House Mayor Mitch Campsal says he and his staff are doing all they can to help.

“We’re working as a support team for the Regional District in the area. Our staff has been on the ball since yesterday afternoon working with the Emergency Center, coordinating anything and everything that we can,” Campsal says. “We will support the CRD, we believe the South Cariboo is our community and we will support our community and help our community 100%, every chance we get.”