TNRD residents near Petit Creek fire prepare for potential evacuation

MERRITT — “It’s as scary as it’s ever been.”

Noreen Cross has lived in her house along Highway 8 for 17 years. Now, the nearby Petit Creek Wildfire is threatening to force her out.

“You could see that the smoke was going reddish at times,” she said, “but mostly, it didn’t seem like there were any flames, but that’s just because of the angle I guess. And, at nighttime of course, flames show up a lot more.”

The TNRD issued an evacuation alert Sunday evening (Apr. 18) for 55 properties in the community of Canford and Miller Estates Subdivision.

“Obviously, we just want people to be aware,” said Kevin Skrepnek, Emergency Program Coordinator with the TNRD, “have some things together if they do have to move on a short notice, have a bit of a plan in place in terms of what they’re going to do, how they’re going to communicate with family and things like that.”

The Petit Creek fire grew to 100 hectares on Sunday.

“Yesterday’s growth was influenced particularly by high winds in the area,” said Fire Information Officer Gagan Lidhran. “In terms of fire objectives today, we have 37 BC Wildfire Service personnel, as well as two pieces of heavy equipment and two helicopters providing aerial support. Our objectives are to create a fire guard around the perimeter of the fire.”

However, crews have been challenged by a lack of access to the fire.

“The heavy equipment is working in unison with crews in order to help build control lines around the perimeter of the fire and help bring them access to the fire as well,” Lidhran said.

During this time of increased fire activity, the TNRD is encouraging people to sign up for the Voyent Alert! public alerting system.

“It’s a great time for people, both in that area and throughout the TNRD to register,” Skrepnek said. “They can do that on our website, they can either get text messages, phone calls, or push notifications to their smart phones.”

If an evacuation should be ordered, residents would be going to Merritt. For now, homeowners are preparing their properties and gathering their valuables should the winds pick up again.

“We’ve got a lot of collectables,” Cross said, “a lot of stuff here and it was like okay, we have the potential to lose a lot. But as long as we’re ready to get ourselves and our animals out of here, then I guess what matters.”