Fort Nelson braces for ‘last stand’ as high winds expected to push wildfire toward town

Rob Fraser did not sugarcoat the situation facing Fort Nelson as forecasts called for westerly winds to pick up in northeastern B.C. late Sunday and turn a menacing nearby wildfire into a dire threat.

Fraser, mayor of the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality based in Fort Nelson, said fire crews and emergency workers are preparing a “last stand” for the possibility that strong winds will push the nearby Parker Lake wildfire directly into the town itself.

“Now that’s the exact worst-case scenario,” Fraser said of the projected winds, which are expected to increase to 20km/h before potentially producing gusts of up to 50 km/h by Monday. “The fire is 2 to 3 kilometres away, and if we get winds from the west anything like we did on Friday — the day that this fire sparked up — it’s going to be extremely difficult to keep it from moving into the community.”

The Parker Lake fire was last measured at 41 square kilometres on Sunday afternoon.

About 3,500 people have already evacuated from Fort Nelson after an order to leave was issued Friday evening in light of the fast-growing Parker Lake fire, with many residents temporarily relocating hundreds of kilometres to the south to Fort St John or Prince George.

But Fraser said as of Sunday there were still about 37 households in Fort Nelson proper and another 28 in the surrounding rural area which have not heeded an order to evacuate, totalling between 100 and 150 people.

Fraser urged those residents to leave immediately, warning local resources like water pressure and electricity may diminish or stop outright for public use since much of the supply will be directed to support firefighters trying to suppress the wildfire.

“We’ve got a deteriorating situation, and it’s likely that as we set up our sprinkler systems and structural protection around the community, water pressure will likely go down,” Fraser said.

“And there’s even the potential for us to lose electricity. So they’ll be at their homes thinking that they’re going to be able to use their own sprinklers, electric pumps and that sort of thing to help themselves, and they’ll find that the resources that they need are gone.”

A statement from the BC Wildfire Service said that while operational and command staff will stay in Fort Nelson “as long as it is safe to do so,” the municipality’s emergency operations centre has moved out of the town to a site Fraser described as about 250 kilometres south on the Alaska Highway.

“To ensure business continuity and continued response of this evolving situation, support staff from the BC Wildfire Service Incident Management Team and members of the local Emergency Operations Centre have departed Fort Nelson,” the statement said.

The Northern Rockies Regional Municipality issued an update warning the wind “has the real potential to significantly increase the size of the fires over the next 48 hours.”

“Know that the decision to evacuate has not been made lightly and is based on careful assessment and expert advice, with the safety of residents being at the forefront,” the update said.

“At this time, all residents who are currently remaining within the community are strongly urged to reconsider and evacuate immediately. You are our friends, family and neighbours. Please stay safe.”

Fraser said the smoke in Fort Nelson was so thick Sunday at air quality was poor even in indoor spaces, and people’s eyes can become irritated within moments of stepping outside.

With the Parker Lake fire directly to the west of the community, Fraser said there’s little crews can do if strong westerly winds develop as forecasted.

“Just pray that the winds don’t come from the west,” he said. “Maybe they go northwest which will help to blow it south of the community, and that would really help us.

“But we’re as ready as we can be with the assistance from the province to make a last stand.”