RCMP remind evacuating residents to notify them when they leave

With the wildfires affecting a large portion of southern BC, RCMP are asking for people’s help when they are under an Evacuation Order.

“Post a note in a very visible location of your property, indicating that you have evacuated, the date that you did evacuate, where you’re planning to be, and a contact number that you can be reached at,” said Janelle Shoihet with the RCMP.

There are 265 active wildfires across BC:

• There are 57 active wildfires in the Prince George Fire Centre, three of them are considered of note.
• The Cariboo Fire Centre has 32 active wildfires, with four considered of note.
• The Northwest Fire Centre has six active wildfires, with the Chief Louie Lake blaze of note.

Sharon Nickel with the Prince George Fire Centre said the rain over the weekend helped tame some of the blazes in the area.

“Pine River actually received a significant amount of precipitation on Sunday, so the fire activity died down significantly on that incident over the weekend. That one does remain classified as out of control.”

The majority of the active wildfires are in the Kamloops Fire Centre, which has 85, and they also have 17 of the 32 wildfires of note in the province.

1,518 fires have raged across BC since April 1st, burning 811,292 hectares of land.

The ten-year average is 1,352 fires, with 348,917 hectares burnt from April 1st to March 30th the following year.

That being said, we still haven’t reached 2018’s numbers of 2,117 wildfires and 1,354,284 hectares burned.