As of 9:00 AM Sunday, July 16th
As we wake up this morning 100 Mile House and Williams Lake have now been evacuated.
Lake City residents, as well as those in surrounding areas such as 150 Mile, were calmly leaving town last night on their way to Little Fort after the evacuation order came in just before 6 pm.
Once at Little Fort, the plan was, as long as the wildfires cooperated, to let residents decide whether or not they went south or north.
In the North Cariboo, there was increased fire activity in the region yesterday which led to increased smoke in the region.
Despite that most fires did not display major growth in the Quesnel area.
The one that showed the greatest amount of growth was the Tautri Complex fire, located about 3 kilometres north of the Rosita-Meldrum Forest Service road.
That fire is now 25,000 hectares in size.
Crews continued to make good progress on the West Fraser Road complex of fires yesterday.
It remains 120 hectares in size.
And the Green Mountain wildfire, still at around 520 hectares, had a small escape yesterday but crews were able to quickly respond and action that escapes.
Good progress is reported on that fire as well.
Kersley residents remain on evacuation alert because of that fire.
There is now also an alert for McLeese Lake to Kersley.
The City of Williams Lake is now under an evacuation order.
The official notice went out just before 6 on Saturday night.
Cariboo Regional District Chair Al Richmond said that the reason for the evacuation was not because the City of Williams Lake was in any imminent danger but because of the potential for the fires to cut off the access out of the City.
Highway 97 North of Williams Lake was cut off by the wildfire burning in that area.
The evacuation route took residents along Highway 97 south to Highway 24 and then onto Little Fort where they were then directed where the best route was to go.
Also tonight, an evacuation alert has been issued for McLeese Lake to Kersley.
This covers the area north and east of the existing Fraser River to Polley Lake to Moffat Creek to 150 Mile evacuation order area, north to the Dragon Mountain Alert area.
Written by George Henderson, mycariboonow.com