The District of Fort Saint James is breathing a sigh of relief as the recent activity from the Shovel Lake blaze is shifting in another direction.
A meeting was held on Sunday to inform the 300 residents who attended about how close the fire is to the community.
The threat has eased for now.
“Right now the threat has eased considerably, the wind shifted and has moved the fire into a southeastern direction where our community is northeast and there is an easing here,” says Rob MacDougall, Mayor of Fort Saint James.
Earlier today, the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako lifted the Evacuation Order from areas along Highway 27 to Fort Saint James including the Dog Creek Community and the Echo Lake Bible Camp.
The community also remains under an Evacuation Alert and not an order.
MacDougall says this has led to a renewed sense of optimism.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that the fire guards we have in place will hold any unforeseen movement with the expected winds today and tomorrow, we are still on an alert as we extended it another seven days.”
However, some people have already fled the community due to fear of the fire.
“I think we have somewhere in the vicinity of 400 individuals that have voluntarily evacuated and have registered here with our Emergency Support Services and some are already trickling back in but I think the majority is still away from town.”
The desert-like conditions along with several other factors may have turned out to be the perfect storm in creating this wildfire activity that remains close to the community.
“We’ve always been very fortunate that our moderate temperature and just the makeup of our forest span has kind of shielding us from anything like this but I think with the amount of logging that is happening, the long hot spells of dry conditions, fuel loading as a result of the pine beetle and now the spruce beetle and a bit of fir beetle is all adding up.”
Premier John Horgan touched down in Prince George today to get a handle on the situation.
Over 560 wildfires are currently burning across the province.