Port Hardy evacuation order lifted, alert still in place
Posted July 6, 2015 6:55 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
PORT HARDY (NEWS 1130) – Hundreds of people on northern Vancouver Island are being allowed back home as a wildfire outside Port Hardy is now mainly contained. That is good news for the 200 locals who were on evacuation order over the weekend after the 17 hectare fire broke out Friday night.
Crews made steady progress Sunday from the air and the ground
Mayor Hank Bood says the at one time the flames came within a few hundred metres of homes on the edge of town. “I suspect that the total fire won’t be out until we get some rain so given that it is so hot and so dry. Like I said, the fire service has done a phenomenal job and I am so happy that the folks can go back to their own homes and their own beds.”
Bood says the fire brought the small town together, with neighbours giving those cleared out somewhere to stay this weekend. “We are a small community we do live on the north end of Vancouver Island. We are a little bit isolated and we are used to pulling together. We have agreements with fellow fire department s to come over. Mutual aid type agreements with neighbours all over so North Island banded together.”
People are being told to stay vigilant and remain on evacuation alert. The community declared a state of emergency Saturday to help with firefighting costs.
