A photo taken a few hours after the ignition by Chetwynd community member Steve McLain. Photo courtesy: Steve McLain

By Tommy Osborne

Chetwynd wildfire

“Really quite terrified:” Chetwynd reacts to ongoing fight against wildfire

Apr 25, 2024 | 4:20 PM

CHETWYND – The Wildmare Creek wildfire impacting the community of Chetwynd continues, and at the moment it is still classified as out of control.

“The majority of people were really quite terrified last night. The winds were blowing and obviously the fire was growing,” said Chetwynd acting mayor Julia Nelson.

Starting at around 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, the fire has since grown to 76 hectares. The Prince george Fire Centre suspects the fire was caused by humans, and while the fire has grown, it fortunately has not grown in the direction of Chetwynd.

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“When the fire is that close to our district center, when it was just a few kilometres away, the fear that it would it could potentially take out our town was right there before us,” said Nelson.

While the scene was definitely quite scary for the community, Nelson says the emergency response teams have been fantastic in fighting the fire, and the evacuation order has since been changed to an evacuation alert.

“As soon as that evacuation order was lifted and the evacuees were able to go back home, that sense of calm was definitely reinstated. Our reports tell us that there are no injuries, no loss of life, and no structural damage,” she said.

The Prince George Fire Centre says there initially was four attack crews comprising of around 20 firefighters and a helicopter, and today the weather has been cooperating with crews trying to contain the fire.

“Yesterday we were experiencing sustained winds out of the southwest, so that’s where we saw the fire growth moving to the northeast towards Chetwynd. There was a little bit of rain overnight and into the early morning hours and the winds have died down, so those have really helped to minimize some of the fire behavior and activity that we’re observing on site. And there was minimal open flame this morning,” said Prince George Fire Centre Fire Information Officer Sharon Nickel.

Highway 97 was closed as a result of the fire, but per the most recent update from Drive BC it has since changed to single lane alternating traffic.

“Just in the interest of public safety, both for public and members of our organization, for first responders, we do ask people to kind of stay out of that area, check Drive BC for the latest highway updates to see if there’s any change to that, but it’s best to delay travel,” Nickel said.

If you see a wildfire you can call *5555 on your cellphone to immediately notify emergency response crews.

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