Lytton evacuation order for small group of rural properties lifts

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — A small step toward an eventual return to normal has taken place Tuesday for a group of people in the Lytton area.

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District has been able to lift an evacuation order for a small number of property owners in a rural area outside the fire-ravaged village.

“We have an area near Lytton that was on an evacuation order that has been updated to an evacuation alert, which does mean that people can kind of return to the area. It’s safe for them to go and check out their homes and their properties,” says District spokesperson Michelle Nordstrom.

According to Nordstrom, around 10 to 20 property owners are being granted access to return to their homes.

However, even though the fires are not a direct threat to their homes anymore, the likelihood of them being able to live on their properties, for the time being, is still an open question.

“Some of them already knew that they would be returning to a place that didn’t have necessarily power running to it, at least at this time, and potentially not water, depending on their water source,” says Nordstrom.

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She says the Regional District isn’t able to provide firm timelines at this point as to when power and other utilities in the Lytton region might be restored.

Still, she says they’ve decided that it’s safe enough for people eager to get back to their homes.

“We’ve had a lot of people requesting access. We’ve had a lot of people really wanting to return,” Nordstrom adds.

Despite the slight reprieve for the Lytton area, most people living in the immediate area of the village remain displaced.

This includes the roughly 250 people who don’t have a home to return to, after the village was 90 percent destroyed in the June 30th fire.

That fire which destroyed Lytton is now estimated at over 90 square kilometres in size.

The fire which torched Lytton is one of 25 wildfires of note the BC Wildfire Service is currently battling around the province.