Mayor – Winnipeg Free Press

FORT ST. JOHN, BC – A wildfire threatening the town of Fort Nelson in northeastern B.C. has caused “some structural damage,” according to the community's mayor.

Rob Fraser, mayor of the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality, which includes Fort Nelson, said the damage was mostly in rural areas outside the city on the northern flank of the fire.

Fort Nelson emergency management officials are assessing the damage and contacting the property owners, he said in an interview Thursday.

Fraser did not say how many properties were damaged or if any homes were among the damaged structures.

The mayor said he wanted to wait before releasing the news, but someone with a camera captured some of the damage on video.

“Can you imagine seeing structures on your property damaged for the first time because of what you saw on social media? It's just, it's sad,” he said.

“It forced our hand. … We wanted to make it a little easier for people.”

Fraser returned to Fort Nelson on Wednesday after traveling 380km south to Fort St John to meet with evacuees.

In a video posted on Facebook earlier this week, he said Fort St. John had to absorb the “shock” of nearly 3,500 people falling into a “community of 25,000.”

The city of Fort Nelson is on alert as residents were told to evacuate last Friday because of the Parker Lake fire.

On Wednesday, evacuees packed the parking lot of the North Peace Arena in Fort St. John after a meeting to explain their plight, many of them leaving with maps showing the location of the fire, spreading to hotels that were forced to swallow thousands by surprise. Guests.

Fraser said Wednesday that the fires burning near their community will leave the future “up in the air” for a short period of time and that there is no clear timeline for when residents will be able to return.

“We don't want to be in a situation where we're sending people back into the community and three days later sending them back out again,” he said. “It would just be a nightmare.”

For Fort St. John businesses, the trickle-down effect was nearly instantaneous.

Jalen Etter, 18, a waiter at Denny's, which is located in a hotel where many evacuees are staying, said the restaurant saw its highest sales on Saturdays, when evacuees arrived in town.

Etter said his supervisor told him to “get ready” before his shift that day.

“I'm like, 'It can't be too bad.' I was wrong,” he said on Wednesday. “People kept coming in.”

He said the influx meant the restaurant was out of stock on Tuesday.

“We didn't have steaks. “We couldn't serve hamburgers, soup, salad, fish and chips, milkshakes, etc.,” he said.

Zeni Patel, a hotel manager at the Howard Johnson in Fort St. John, said the ownership changed a month ago, and the staff was still deep cleaning and computerized when the hapless evacuees started showing up.

Most have no money, ID or proper luggage, and hotels and others in the city are full of evacuees, Patel said.

He said the government was helping evacuees, but it was still a “stressful” situation.

“We have to deal with their emotions, so we support them as much as we can,” he said. “Guests are our priority now.”

Some businesses are rolling out welcome mats for evacuees.

The local Lido movie theater hosts free movie nights for local energy companies, including popcorn and drinks. BarBurrito is offering discounts to evacuees.

After Wednesday's meeting, Fraser said officials can answer people's questions, but residents are “concerned about getting back into the community.”

“I think we allayed some of their fears,” he said.

He told evacuees that it was “by the grace of God” that the Parker Lake fire, which was fueled by 70-mile-per-hour winds last Friday, did not engulf the community of about 4,700 residents.

BC Wildfire says the blaze, about two kilometers west of the city, has grown from 84 square kilometers earlier this week to 127 square kilometers, but has spread south of the city.

Thursday's service update says shifting winds over the fire could push smoke back into the area, complicating aerial firefighting efforts.

But he said a low-pressure system with cooler temperatures and higher humidity led to less fire activity Wednesday, allowing crews to work closer to the edge of the fire and make progress on “direct attack objectives.”

For conditions in the province, the service says rain and cooler temperatures are expected in many areas over the coming days.

He said conditions are unseasonably dry and typical of late summer, meaning fuels tend to ignite and wildfires spread quickly.

“It is important that everyone does their part to be responsible for any actions that may start a new fire,” the statement said.

Fraser said the calm conditions Thursday allowed BC Wildfire to determine where the hot spots were and focus their efforts accordingly.

But he said the blaze could rekindle if the forecast for this weekend brings clear skies and warm air.

“We're not out of the woods yet. But everyone has a good feeling that we are not in defensive mode, but in attack mode.”

— With files from Brenna Owen in Vancouver

This Canadian Press report was first published on May 16, 2024.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. In a previous version, Fort St. John's B.C. said that it is in the northwest. In fact, it is in the northeast.