State of emergency declared for BC area

West Kootenay fires lead to state of emergency

Sara Newham, Nelson Daily News

Published: Friday, August 03, 2007

A local state of emergency has been declared in the West Kootenay where five fires are raging and forestry officials are already making comparisons to 2003, when 265,053 hectares burned across the province.

"It's not 2003 yet but there has been a trend with the indices and the dryness of the forest fields that indicate we could see some similar fire behaviour to what we saw in 2003," said Steve Bachop, superintendent of fire prevention and detection with the BC Forest Service Protection Program.

He added that rain recorded a few weeks ago knocked the indices back a bit but with the recent stretch of hot weather, those indices are creeping back up and more lightning is expected this weekend.

By Thursday afternoon, the Sitkum Creek blaze sat at 1,050 hectares, the Springer Creek fire was 873 hectares, the Kemp Creek blaze near Kaslo was about 200 hectares, the Penstock fire in the Arrow Lakes area was recorded at about 400 hectares and the Hamil Creek fire near Argenta was about 905 hectares.

So far, three homes have been evacuated in the Slocan area, near the Springer Creek Fire, when the fire's boundary expanded to within 100 metres of a house. An extra 11 homes are still under evacuation alert and have been for several days. A further 18 homes are on alert in Penstock and four are on alert in Argenta. The Sitkum Creek fire, located 13 kilometres from Nelson is not threatening any communities or homes at this point.

The Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) has declared a local state of emergency within the area surrounding Slocan City and has set up an emergency reception centre at a school in Slocan. They are urging those under alert to find a place to stay.