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Progress made on Bobtail forest fire

Crews have made significant progress on containing a major forest fire southwest of Prince George but not enough to completely calm the fears of property owners in the area.
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Crews have made significant progress on containing a major forest fire southwest of Prince George but not enough to completely calm the fears of property owners in the area.

The Little Bobtail Lake fire remained at 25,000 hectares and was 45 per cent contained as of Thursday morning - up from 30 per cent the day before - while the weather appeared to be cooperating.

But Nechako-Lakes MLA John Rustad, who lives at Cluculz Lake, noted many homes remain subject either to evacuation orders or evacuation alerts.

"Anytime you're under evacuation alert, it's certainly causes stress because you never know when you get that phone call or somebody knocking on your door saying you've got to leave," Rustad said.

He said it looks like the chances of the alert being upgraded to an order has been reduced as crews continue to work on the fire, "although I think it's important the alert remains in effect."

"Things are so dry out there that if you get a sudden change of weather you could end up in a very serious situation in a very short period of time," Rustad added.

An evacuation order remained in effect for about 80 homes in the Norman Lake area and the Dahl Lake and Bobtail Mountain provincial parks are still closed. More than 800 homes in the Cluculz, Bednesti and Berman Lake areas remained subject to the evacuation alert.

Rustad commended the crews for the work they've done and noted no structures have been damaged as a result of the fire, which was discovered two weekends ago.

As of Thursday, more than 315 firefighters are on site, along with 11 helicopters, 45 pieces of heavy equipment and six airtankers.

Wildfire Management reminds the public that the evacuation orders and restrictions are still in place and to stay away to let the crews do their jobs.