TNRD rescinds final wildfire evacuation alerts

Sep 4, 2018 | 4:11 PM

KAMLOOPS — Great news for property owners in electoral areas ‘E’ and ‘N’ in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District (TNRD).

The diminished wildfire threat has allowed the TNRD to rescind the evacuation alerts in place for both areas — meaning there are no longer any evacuation orders or alerts in place in the entire region.

Both alerts covered mainly rural areas, one of them was up in the north, close to the border of the Cariboo Regional District, in the Wild Goose Lake area, in electoral area ‘E.’

“We had had them in various stages of being on alert and there was actually an evacuation order in the area there in mid-August,” says TNRD Communmications and Marketing Manager Michelle Nordstrom. “So, now wildfire crews have been getting a better opportunity to handle these wildfires and get them down in size and steer them out of the way of homes in the area.”

The other alert was southwest of Merritt, in electoral area ‘N’ — an area similar to area “E” where there are rural properties such as summer use cabins and cottages and vacation properties.

“Similarly to area ‘E,’ we don’t have a very good idea of the number of homes or properties affected by that one,” says Nordstrom. “That was actually Aug. 10 we put that alert on, we had an order in the area of Aug. 11 and then it went back down to an alert Aug. 28.”