Clean up underway at Emterra Environment in Kamloops on Sept. 3, the day after the suspicious fire. (Image Credit: Kent Simmonds/CFJC Today)

By Victor Kaisar

Emterra Fire

City of Kamloops forced to divert recyclables to Pritchard after suspicious fire at Emterra Environmental

Sep 4, 2026 | 5:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — Wednesday’s (Sept. 2) suspicious fire that sparked alongside the Trans Canada Highway in Valleyview led to some disruptions to recycling services at the City of Kamloops this week, but the impacts are expected to be short-lived.

The interface fire spread to the nearby Emterra Environmental facility on Kelly Douglas Road, and it meant the city had to reroute its recycling trucks to the South Thompson Eco-Depot in Pritchard.

“We take our direction of where to take our recycling from Recycle BC, and we were instructed as a result of that fire, to take our material to the TNRD facility in Pritchard,” Robert Wagner, the city’s utility services manager, told CFJC Today.

“It’s 46 kilometres extra mileage that we have to put on the trucks there and back, so it’s a bit of an impact to the city, but considering some of the municipalities like Vancouver, for example, it’s not that big of a deal compared to where other municipalities have to go and drop off their material.”

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Wagner said the city takes materials put in household blue bins – as well as some commercial recycling – to Emterra to be processed. He noted approximately 50 tons of material had to be diverted to Pritchard this week.

“We still picked up material [Thursday and Friday] as normal,” Wagner added. “It’s our understanding, according to Recycle BC, the Emterra facility will be up and running on Tuesday (Oct. 8) morning after the long-weekend.”

It’s not clear how exactly the fire started, but police are investigating the incident as arson. They confirmed Thursday one person had been arrested, but details about the suspect or the nature of the arrest aren’t known at this time.

by Victor Kaisar

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City of Kamloops forced to divert recyclables to Pritchard after suspicious fire at Emterra Environmental

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