The Kamloops East wildfire threatened homes in Valleyview and forced evacuations in Juniper Ridge as well (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

PREMIER VISIT

Horgan acknowledges challenges around wildfires, no provincial state of emergency coming yet

Jul 7, 2021 | 11:19 AM

KAMLOOPS — The Sparks Lake wildfire is now close to 40,000 hectares in size and has ranchers in the area concern about their properties and livestock.

Many say they’re protecting their properties with no help from the BC Wildfire Service. However, the province says it’s trying to help everyone that needs it.

“People on the ground have enormous challenges — unimaginable for those not living in the frontline of a fire coming at your community, so I have a great deal of concern and I share that with them,” acknowledged Premier John Horgan at a media conference in Kamloops on Tuesday (July 6). “But I am confident that everything that can be done is being done from this [wildfire] centre here in Kamloops.”

Horgan and two of his NDP cabinet ministers visited the region on Tuesday, flying over Lytton to view the damage. They also saw the province’s largest burning fire, the Sparks Lake wildfire, from the air.

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Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth assures people affected that the province is gaining more resources as the fire situation worsens.

“They have the ability to access all the resources they require in terms of personnel,” he said. “With contractors, there are over 2,700 men and women fighting the fires right now in British Columbia. In terms of help from the federal government, there is a request for assistance that’s already been approved, so federal resources are here.”

However, many ranchers and rural residents being impacted by the fire have called on the province — just like the BC Liberal Party — to call a provincial state of emergency. However, Farnworth says the government is waiting for the call from wildfire experts on the ground.

“That’s based on the advice and expertise of the men and women in the BC Wildfire Service and Emergency Management BC,” noted Farnworth. “These are the men and women whose job it is, and their expertise is what decides when it is time to put in place a provincial state of emergency.”

In the wake of the Kamloops East wildfire that’s led to calls for a secondary access road in and out of Juniper Ridge, the City of Kamloops is now making it a priority. Staff will be reaching out to different levels of government for grant money.

The premier was asked on Tuesday about provincial assistance for such a project.

“I haven’t been contacted. Obviously it’s early days, but these are the types of things where communities need to come together — municipal governments, both orders of government, the federal and provincial government,” Horgan said.