Approximately, 550 people were affected by the Canim Lake evacuation orders, according to the Cariboo Regional District.
The evacuations followed after lightning strikes across the South Cariboo resulting in numerous new fires, including a 150 hectare fire south of Canim Lake and a 35 hectare fire south of Hawkins Lake.
Thomas Boulding and his son, also Thomas Boulding, were in the parking lot at the South Cariboo Rec Centre on Sunday, Aug. 13.
They were on the border of the Canim Lake evacuations, he says while having his son on his shoulders.
“Last night, I worked at the Firehouse diner and I got off … around 10 o’clock at night, raced home because my boss said there’s a fire between his place and my place, which he’s out by Timothy Lake. I raced home and tell my wife ‘okay we gotta get some bags packed’ and within the next hour we had some guy in our driveway honking and yelling ‘yeah, time to leave.’ So we packed up [and] came into town.”
The Emergency Operations Centre and Emergency Social Services were quite busy, he says.
“There was quite a wait for the ESS. A lot of people came out in those few hours. [We] sat around here for three or four hours and got registered and spent the night in our van.”
From on top of his dad’s shoulders, Thomas chimed in that it was good but that he didn’t get a lot of sleep, although his dad gestured otherwise.
“Our plan is to stay at the Red Coach Inn and I have to be back at work. Yeah, we’ll be staying there until they let us go back to our farm.”
He’s not too worried about his place, he says.
“Not really. It’s still a little ways away and the way my property is situated I have road on two sides and then the creek on a third. So I have fire barriers all the way around my property.”
“I’m feeling good. I’m an optimist. Everything will work out eventually.”
The evacuation orders near Canim Lake were downgraded to alerts on Monday, Aug. 14.
