By Chad Klassen

Cache Creek residents want to go back home with fire moving north

Jul 12, 2017 | 5:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — Some evacuees from Cache Creek like Steve Janzen feel with the Ashcroft Reserve wildfire moving away from their community, it’s time to go home.

Janzen and a few other Cache Creek evacuees have been staying at McArthur Island in their trailers since being order out of their community on Friday. 

“We’ve been sitting around trying to figure out when we can get back home. We weren’t ready to be evacuated,” said Janzen. “There’s enough of us that would be back there, pulling together and trying to get everything going back on track and that’s the way it should be.”

Janzen can see live security footage from his home and feels the Ashcroft Reserve wildfire — now travelling north towards clinton — is far enough away and the evacuation order should be an alert. 

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“We’re not in immediate danger,” he said. “I think it should be downgraded back to an evacuation alert, so we can go back home. There’s no place like home. 

There’s no word from the TNRD on when Cache Creek residents will be allowed back. The district is taking it day by day before determining a return date. 

But many who didn’t have time to grab much are itching to get back. 

“I want my bed,” said fellow Cache Creek resident Chris Sonmor. “I want to get home. I want to band together with our community once again and rebuild.”

“Cache Creek, as far as I know, is completely untouched. But we have all the people that lost their homes in Boston Flats and over at the Ashcroft Indian Band, and like we’ve gone through with the floods, we’ve just going to band together and get through it.”

Janzen and friends say there are no words to describe the generosity of the Kamloops community that’s been incredible in providing what they need. 

But he says precious resources should be going to residents in the Cariboo. 

“There’s a lot of resources up there [at the TRU emergency centre] being used up that shouldn’t be used up because now we’ve got all the people from 100 Mile House, Williams Lake being detoured from going to Prince George and they’re going to need those resources.”