Captured by Fire by Chris Czajkowski & Fred Reid

Author:Chris Czajkowski & Fred Reid
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Wildfires, British Columbia, Fred Reid, 21st century, Chris Czajkowski, Evacuation, History
ISBN: 9781550178869
Publisher: Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd.
Published: 2019-09-28T00:00:00+00:00

Evacuation Order Again

CHRIS

KLEENA KLEENE, AUGUST 4–10

August 4, four weeks to the day after the first lightning storms and six days after we were downgraded to “alert,” I received a phone call from Gerald at the Tatla Lake Manor. He was speaking with his Search and Rescue hat on. He told me that we were under evacuation order again. Gerald spouted the dogma that I was not to go to Bella Coola this time, but had to go east to Williams Lake. “I know,” he said when I expostulated. “Total BS but this is what I have been told to say. I’m just giving you a heads-up.” The police, he informed me, would be around to enforce the order.

I had not unpacked very much from the van, only food that might be compromised by heat. One item was the tote full of organic seeds and grains. This food would be impossible to replace locally. I am used to shopping for weeks or even months at a time, but on July 7 I had not anticipated being away from town so long. I was far from starving, but I might have to start rationing some of the items. At least I had the garden. I was eating a ton of greens by now, and the very first carrots.

The tote had been too heavy to lift and I was too lazy to unpack it, so I had backed the van to the loading bay and dragged the tote into the comparative cool of my outer room. I did not want to return the food into the van if I didn’t have to, but in view of the upsurge in fire activity, I placed the van by the loading bay again so that the tote could be slid back in without delay.

A short time later, a cop drove into the yard. He asked for my address. I gave the property number and followed it with Highway 20. He did not know where Highway 20 was. “You’ve just been driving on it!” I exclaimed. He was from Alberta and had arrived only the day before. Large quantities of personnel were now swarming into the area, all coming for a two-week stint before being relieved by the next batch. It seems to be an ongoing frustration with this cumbersome firefighting machinery that the outsiders come in totally unprepared. They don’t have the faintest idea of the geography of the country; they don’t seem to be provided with maps or any other information from their predecessors—and they never think to enlist the help of locals. Each new batch of workers—and this appears to happen in all levels of firefighting from administration down to the lowliest shoveller—has to start from scratch. This seems to be in total contrast to Fred’s accounts of what is going on in the Precipice. It was evident that the Coastal Division of the BC Wildfire Service was prepared to inform the public better—even I obtained far more information from them than I did

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