More than two years following wildfires that ravaged the region, the Canadian Red Cross will no longer have a physical office in Williams Lake.
The Red Cross will be closing its office at 510 Broadway Avenue North on Friday.
“I call it a good news story in the sense that we’re at a place now within our recovery operation where majority of the folks have found what we would call a ‘new normal’ and have been able to recover to a point where we are no longer needing to assist them,” says Elysia Dempsey, Director of the Emergency Management program for BC Yukon.
“The number has reduced to a point where the number of case files just has one caseworker that is supporting the remaining case files.”
Dempsey estimates the Red Cross has supported over 33,000 households throughout the region since the 2017 wildfires with both relief and recovery assistance.
The office was originally established on the upper level of Botanio Mall before it had moved to its current location on Broadway Avenue North.
Dempsey says the Red Cross will continue to support community partnerships within the area as well as individuals and households that are still in the recovery phase of rebuilding their homes.