Some Cariboo wildfire evacuees heading home

CANIM LAKE (NEWS 1130) – A couple of hundred people who were forced to flee their homes because of British Columbia’s wildfires over the weekend are being allowed to go back.

The Cariboo Regional District and Canim Lake Indian Band announced that after two days on an evacuation order, about 550 people from Canim Lake and Hawkins Lake areas can go home because of the success crews have had fighting the wildfire.

Al Richmond is the chair of the Cariboo Regional District.

“The rain and the fact the wind reduced itself were all positive steps to enable people to go home,” he says.

There are still 162 wildfires burning across British Columbia, more than half of them out of control.

Most of the notable fires are in the Cariboo region, where nearly half the region has been impacted. Richmond calls it unprecedented.

The fires have led to air quality advisories across the entire interior east of the Fraser Valley, all the way up to the northern regions. But the air quality advisories have ended for the Metro Vancouver area.

Weekend rain has little impact on fires

This weekend’s rain didn’t do much to cool down the second worst wildfire season on record in BC. Since April 1st, nearly 730,000 hectares have been scorched compared to 855,000 in 1958.

Chief Information Officer Kevin Skrepnek says the BC Wildfire Service has already spent nearly $293-million this year, and we’re only halfway through August.

“By no means did the rain over the past 48 hours do much in terms of really putting a dent in the season. Still exceptionally dry out there in most areas, especially at the deeper layers of the forest floor.”

Of the 162 fires now burning, all 15 new starts were sparked by lightning.

The largest one is the Hanceville-Riske Creek fire outside Williams Lake, which now covers almost 194,000 hectares.

The Elephant Hill fire near Clinton has also grown to 168,000 hectares.