Knutsford residents welcome Mexican family evacuated from Williams Lake
KAMLOOPS — It was supposed to be a happy reunion between a pair of sisters; Maritza Gutierrez, who lives in Guadalajara, Mexico was visiting her sister Maria Helena Jackson, a William’s Lake resident when the Hanceville-Riske Creek fire stranded them outside of the city. When Maritza and rest of her family were evacuated to Kamloops, they were turned away by the Red Cross because they aren’t Canadian citizen. Thankfully, some residents stepped up to make sure the Gutierrez family wasn’t left out in the cold.
The scene in Patricia Prescott’s living room is reminiscent of old friends enjoying each other’s company; when Maritza Gutierrez first met Prescott, Patricia was a volunteer at Thompson-Nicola Regional District’s emergency social services reception centre, where the Gutierrez family arrived after being evacuated from the William’s Lake area.
“It was scary,” Gutierrez explained. “For the first time in my life, I heard the voice of the fire when it goes up for the trees.”