East Blackpool residents Dave Rodriguez and Lisa Crombie have decided not to evacuate.
Instead they are trying to protect their home and animals, which are located on their 100 acre property on Auldgirth Road.
“We’re doing good. We feel pretty comfortable,” said Rodriguez on Thursday afternoon, July 20.
Both have several years experience fighting forest fires and are confident they can protect what they have in all but the most extreme of conditions.
“We figured we could fight the fire as well as the others,” he said.
The TNRD issued an evacuation order for their location on Saturday, July 15, but they decided to stay put.
Strong winds that night pushed the Dunn Lake fire past their place to near the junction of Auldgirth Road and Dunn Lake Road.
However, except for some fire action at the north and south ends of Auldgirth, there has been little activity near where they live, Rodriguez reported.
They have an evacuation plan, he said, and if necessary will swim their animals across the North Thompson River.
Heavy rain showers on Thursday helped cool down the fire, although there was also strong winds and lightning.
A friend from Kamloops was with them for three days to help them set up pumps, hoses and sprinklers but is now gone.
Other friends have been bringing them supplies such as food and gasoline as far as the police checkpoint for them to pick up.
The friends also took away a generator that was not working to have it repaired.
The couple has a good rapport with most but not all of the RCMP on duty at the checkpoint, Rodriguez said.
One person even paddled across the river to bring them supplies.
They are not the only residents of the area to have chosen to stay and fight, he said.
Rodriguez said he felt the firefighters actually working on the fire were doing a good job.
He was no so impressed with the higher officials.
“The government reaction is either do too much or do nothing. What can you say?” he said.
Rodriguez felt that local forestry workers and loggers who are familiar with the conditions in this area make the best firefighters, mentioning a crew from KDC Forestry Consulting as doing “a helluva job.”
“We’re not cooked yet,” he said. “Besides, I’m too old to run away.”
In an earlier interview, Jed Cochrane, the incident commander in charge of fighting the Dunn Lake fire, commented that those people who stayed behind to save their livestock and buildings were making it more difficult to the air tanker crews, as the crews will not drop retardant onto a location where they know people are.
“They’re not helping themselves in that situation,” Cochrane said.
