Winds early Wednesday evening, July 12, push the Dunn Lake fire northwards along Queen Bess ridge towards East Blackpool and Clearwater. As of Monday morning, July 24, the situation had stabilized and evacuation alerts were lifted for Clearwater and some adjacent areas, but not for East Blackpool. Evacuation orders remained in place for the Dunn Lake and Hallamore Lake areas.

Winds early Wednesday evening, July 12, push the Dunn Lake fire northwards along Queen Bess ridge towards East Blackpool and Clearwater. As of Monday morning, July 24, the situation had stabilized and evacuation alerts were lifted for Clearwater and some adjacent areas, but not for East Blackpool. Evacuation orders remained in place for the Dunn Lake and Hallamore Lake areas.

Clearwater and TNRD lift several evacuation alerts

Alerts remain in place for East Blackpool and areas near Little Fort, however

District of Clearwater rescinded the evacuation alert for most of Clearwater on Monday morning, July 24. The only exception is that portion of the municipality that lies south of the North Thompson River (across the blue bridge by the ski hill and along Dunn Lake Road).

That portion of the District of Clearwater remains under an evacuation alert.

At the same time, Thompson-Nicola Regional District rescinded the evacuation alerts for Upper Clearwater, Blackpool (west side of the river) and Little Fort.

The all clears do not apply to East Blackpool, the area across the North Thompson River from Little Fort or a small area immediately south of Little Fort.

The evacuation alerts there remain in place.

Evacuation orders continue to be in place for the Dunn Lake and Hallamore Lake areas.

Those wishing to confirm the evacuation status of a particular property should go to the TNRD’s interactive map.

Canfor resumes full operations

Meanwhile at Canfor-Vavenby, division manager Steve Planeta has confirmed that the sawmill is back in full operation as of Monday.

The company announced on July 16 that it was closing its Vavenby operation due to the forest fire situation, although some employees continued to go to work.

Clearwater Times