Sadly, it appears that some people are using the wildfire situation in the Cariboo to take advantage of people that are particularly vulnerable during this time.
Fire Information Officer Nicole Bonnett explains.
“It sounds like there are some people going door to door in evacuation alert and order areas and asking people if they’ve sustained any property damage due to wildfires, and trying to get personal information. They’re not acting on behalf of the government or for any official reason, so please don’t share your personal information with somebody who is just asking questions of you.”
Bonnett suggests that people contact the RCMP if this happens to them.
As for the rumours, Bonnett says 100 Mile is NOT being evacuated and Highway 97 IS open.
“100 Mile does remain on evacuation alert but at this point in time there has been no need to update that to an order. We do recommend that people be prepared just in case they need to leave. And the second one is that the highway is shut down between 100 Mile House and 70 Mile House. The Highway 97 corridor, that side of the fire that is closest to the highway, is looking very quiet. We’ve had a lot of people in mop up so the activity on that side of the fire is minimal.”
Bonnett says most of the activity on the Flat Lake wildfire, northeast of 100 Mile House, has been on the northwest corner which is on the Gustafson Lake side.
“We’re focusing some efforts there and looking at some different containment line options. On the east flank where there were some small scale hand ignitions the other day and crews are back in there mopping up and putting out any hot spots. We had a partial aerial scan Wednesday night to pick up thermal heat so we can see where some of the hot spots are that we may not be able to find during the day.”
Bonnett says they did a planned ignition last (Thursday) night on the southwest corner to help secure the southwest flank which is where the Meadow Lake and Dog Creek areas are.