The entire district of Hudson’s Hope remains under mandatory evacuation due to the Battleship Mountain wildfire.
The fire is burning 50km west of Hudson’s Hope and has now grown to 28,000 hectares in size – that’s over ten times the area of Fort St. John. The evacuation order was issued for Hudson’s Hope and the surrounding areas on Saturday evening.
This is obviously a difficult time for residents, but Mayor Dave Heiberg is staying optimistic. He says the evacuation process went smoothly given the number of people involved, and that residents are being well taken care of by the Emergency Support Services Reception Centre in Fort St. John.
Today, emergency operations personnel are working to protect the most critical structures in town, which include communications and public works infrastructure.
“We have to see how this fire is going to behave today, and see if the contingency plans that they put in place yesterday are going to help us,” says Heiberg. He went on to joke: “If anybody out there has got any connections, we could use a little rain.”
Control operations remain ongoing on the east flank of the wildfire. Heiberg says the District of Hudson’s Hope will continue to update the community with any information they get from the BC Wildfire Service.
