Hon. Mike Farnworth, BC’s public safety minister once again reminded BC residents to avoid non-essential travel to BC’s interior due to the dire wildfire situation.
He was very stern in his statement urging residents to change their plans if they were planning on spending their vacation in the Okanagan, most of which is evacuated or under alert.
“If you are planning to travel to those areas, it’s time to change your plans. Instead, visit an area of the province where your presence won’t strain local resources and will have a positive impact,” Minister Farnworth said. (via CityNews)
He further insisted that “Given the conditions we’re seeing in our communities and on our highways, I want to be clear: do not travel to fire-affected areas for non-essential reasons. We want to ensure that people in fire-affected communities will be able to evacuate if necessary and access the supports that they need.”
There are currently 260 wildfires burning in BC’s interior, most of which are in the Kamloops and Southeast region. The wildfire situation got worse over the past weekend and all of BC is under high concern. Most recently, the July Mountain fire moved to Coquihalla highway and joined another fire on the other side, leading to the closure of Highway 5 between Hope and Merritt.
This is grave news for those trying to evacuate towards the Lower Mainland. Alternative routes, Highway 5A and Highway 3 are dealing with more traffic than usual and those towns are trying to deal with the sudden influx of travellers passing through.