Cariboo Regional District Chair Al Richmond says it’s still too early to say when South Cariboo residents, evacuated because of the Gustafson wildfire, can go home.
“We don’t want to give expectations that something is going to happen right away, i think that’s very important. So we’d rather to be able to give a firm time frame when we look at this, rather than speculate and have people disappointed.”
Richmond says the eventual re-entry is an ongoing process and they are meeting several times daily to make that possible.
He also says he sympathizes with people that have been forced from their homes…
“I can appreciate that people are anxious to get home, I have been out of my home since July 7th i think it was, so i’d like to go home too, my family is not home, they are in Kamloops, so we are all facing similar things. So i am very, very cognizant of people’s desires, but we as local government want to get it right.”
Richmond says there are a lot things to get ready before people can go back, including making sure there is food in the stores and medical services available.
He also says that people with respiratory conditions may not want to go back yet anyways because the air quality is still poor.