That’s how Quesnel’s Emergency Services Coordinator would imagine it’s like trying to fight the wildfire in Fort McMurray.
Sylvain Gauthier, also the Fire Chief, says you can only prepare so much for a fire like this as well as an evacuation of this scale.
He says what we’re seeing in Fort McMurray could definitely happen here.
Gauthier says there is concern in BC with the dry conditions we are experiencing and he says people will have to be very careful this summer.
We asked Gauthier if he could put into perspective what the fire fighters in Alberta are facing.
He says “just imagine that when people are having a backyard fire and you start to put a lot of wood on it and the flames and the fire is getting bigger. Normally you are starting to feel the heat so people are backing away. well instead of backing away move closer and closer to the fire until you are almost right beside it. He says if you look at the temperature and its hot, now just put that probably a thousand fold.”
He says there is no way you can get close to that fire.
Gauthier says exhaustion will be starting to set in for the fire fighters and they also have to fight dehydration.