More than a thousand people arrived in Prince George from evacuation zones on Friday, pushing the overall number past 1,300 and counting.
Most of the latest evacuees arrived from Fraser Lake, Fort St. James, the in-between communities and more than a dozen directly affected First Nations.
That number is expected to grow as the borders of the many regional fires also expand.
The largest of those flame cells, the Shovel Lake Fire, was mapped at 79,000 hectares as of midday Friday. That is a burned area roughly the size of Montreal and Quebec City combined, or all of Toronto plus Brampton.
Shovel Lake is, of course, far from alone. The Island Lake Fire is doing to the south side of Highway 16 (in the Grassy Plains / Francois Lake area) what Shovel Lake is doing on the north side (in the Fraser Lake / Fort St. James area). That blaze was said to be more than 14,000 hectares as of Friday morning.
There are 23 more fires of note in the northern region of the province, plus a number of lesser ones that also threaten to grow due to what BC Wildfire Service spokesperson Kevin Skrepnek called "just bone dry" conditions with little likelihood of rain anywhere in the province, and it is the entire province that is factored into the scope of this calamity. Skrepnek said firefighting resources were necessarily deployed to virtually every quadrant of the province simultaneously.
As of press deadline, there were 556 confirmed fires in B.C. with 22 new ones springing up on Thursday, and 14 more by Friday afternoon.
Skrepnek said there were "50 fires of note throughout the province, and which is a considerable number. I can certainly say in my time with the Wildfire Service I don't think I've ever seen that many significant fires burning at one time, and so widespread as well."
This all led to Jennifer Rice B.C.'s Parliamentary Secretary for Emergency Preparedness, to issue gratitude to the federal level.
"I want to thank the military for their support. It is greatly appreciated," Rice said.
More than 3,500 personnel are currently at work on B.C.'s wildfires (208 aircraft). About 1,300 of them are contractors, 600 are from out-of-province, and a contingent from the Canadian Armed Forces.
Military engineer Major Jeff Allen said "The Canadian Armed Forces has deployed a land task force of approximately 200 soldiers into the Okanagan region with an element that's moved forward and deployed to Merritt where they have established a firefighting camp alongside our BC Wildlife Service partners."
Two heavy-duty aircraft - a Sea King helicopter based in Smithers and a Hercules transport plane based in Esquimalt - were assigned to firefighting tasks.
It's the second time in as many years that Allen and his military colleagues have been called into wildfire action in Central B.C. He said their primary directive is to help mop up contained fires so frontline firefighting professionals can move on to fires still out of control.
RCMP spokesperson Dawn Roberts reported that more than 200 Mounties had also been dedicated to firefighting efforts, with Alberta's division on standby if more are needed.
Additionally, the RCMP has already acted to evacuate key files and evidence from towns under fire threat, so as to protect the integrity of ongoing investigations. Fuel supplies, aircraft, boats and other self-reliance resources have also been readied in case Mounties need to oversee communities that lose utilities.
Across B.C. there were, as of Friday middat, a total of 28 evacuation orders affecting just shy of 3,000 properties, plus 49 evacuation alerts affecting another 11,300 properties. B.C. Forests Minister Doug Donaldson urged everyone in those situations to help emergency responders by complying, despite any urge to protect buildings on your own.
"For people who are under alert, please take that seriously and be prepared to evacuate if need be," he said.
"And for those in areas under evacuation order, it is my strong, strong suggestion to follow those evacuation orders. We don't want situations where people are compromised by quickly advancing fires and have to be either rescued or being unable to get to them."
