QUESNEL—It was a long night for fire personnel in Quensel on Tuesday. After more than 12 hours of crew, tirelessly battling a log yard fire at the West Fraser MDF plant, things are under control.
Just after 2PM, crews were called to the scene on Quesnel Hixon Road. Through the night, witnesses saw the flames light up the sky.
Officials say over 40,000 cubic metres of logs were burned—or about 1,000 logging truck loads worth.
According to Environment Canada, wind gusts reached as a high as 59 KM/H.
“Big flames, lots of action.” said Tom Annett, Owner of North Cariboo Saw Repair.
Annett was nearby when the fire happened. He described that the fire was more well over 200 feet up in the air, with potentially dangerous amber flying over his head.
“The fire seemed to be recessed, like dug out. So if it was leveled with the highway, I think it would’ve been a lot more serious. Definitely the amber was coming up and above the trees and blowing down the highway which could’ve been a concern for the local residents and businesses.” said Annett.
Quesnel’s city manager says the situation could have been a lot of worse if it wasn’t for the efforts of local emergency crews.
“Just to put it into context, this was a very large fire it was about 1,000 logging trucks of wood all burned up.” said Byron Johnson, City Manager for Quesnel.
More than 50 firefighters and three fire departments were at the scene battling the blaze.
The Boucher Lake and Barlow Creek fire departments helped with the log yard fire which nearly spread next door to the city’s cemetery.
“The winds were pushing it, so we had a massive amount of apparatus in there and people in there and that’s because it was grassy in there and it enabled the fire break and that’s where they managed to hold the fire and not go beyond that.” said Johnson.
On Wednesday morning, city crews were cleaning up the debris left behind. Official had to cut the fence line which separates the two properties.
CKPG-TV reached out to West Fraser for a comment but have not heard back yet.
Resources were stretched thin on Tuesday. While crews were battling the log yard fire, another fire happened in downtown Quesnel.
The West Fraser and Kersley Fire Departments were called to help with that house fire.
Johnson says it was the community rallying together that helped save the day.
“That just shows the value of teamwork on that, right? We all act as one big community fire department when the need arises.” said Johnson.
