Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Amandalina Letterio

Embleton Mountain Fire

Whitecroft residents express relief, gratitude as they return home

Jul 23, 2021 | 3:31 PM

WHITECROFT, B.C. — Whitecroft residents were told they could go home on Thursday night after being put on an evacuation order for almost two weeks.

“I know the firefighters were going to do everything they could in their power to protect our properties and everything else, and I know they would not put themselves in danger, and that was the main thing. But I didn’t know if I was going to have a house to come back to,” Helen Jones told CFJC News as she arrived at her Whitecroft home on Friday morning (July 23).

For Jones, it was more than a homecoming; she was able to reunite with her husband, a volunteer firefighter who stayed behind to help.

“Suddenly he’s coming, saying, ‘You gotta go,’ so I packed up the cat and I drove saying goodbye to my husband with the firefighters and I drove off. It was tough,” she explained.

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Shortly after she left, the fire ignited right outside of their backyard.

“The anxiety was pretty high on quite a few nights. We watched it come down to the guard and you hope the guard was going to do its job, and it did,” said Mark Jones, Helen’s husband.

“There were a few spots where it jumped, and that’s going to happen with the wind and the guys got it damped down real quick,” he said.

As of Friday morning, the Embleton Mountain fire is estimated to be 920 hectares, classified as active and out of control, leaving the Whitecroft community on evacuation alert.

“We’ll still have crews on it for a while. It’s definitely a larger fire, so it’s going to have to go through the stages of control to being called out, but as of now we’re feeling confident that we can contain it within the existing perimeter,” said Forrest Tower, a fire information officer at the BC Wildfire Service.

Like many other families across British Columbia, the Joneses will be on guard for wildfires all summer.

“It’s not over yet, and we’ve still got a long potentially dry summer ahead of us, so yeah, it’s going to be tricky until we get some rain,” said Mark Jones.

“We’ve still got to keep packed, ready to go. But it’s just nice to come home, have your own bed and be together,” Helen Jones added.