100 Mile House Mayor Mitch Campsall says the evacuation last night went as smoothly as possible.
“I would have to give the citizens of 100 Mile, our Search and Rescue team a gold star. It was amazing. It just went awesome, like clockwork,” he says. “Absolutely flawless.”
Evacuation orders went out just before 9 p.m. last night asking people within municipal boundaries to head towards Prince George via Highway 24 in order to access Emergency Social Services because the Gustafsen fire to the north of the district had jumped the southern perimeter.
“It was a surprise to everybody because we were doing so good and then the wind decided to change direction and keep right back at us. That’s why we made the call,” Campsall says.
Half an hour earlier, he says he had been frustrated because of rumours being spread that the community was evacuating.
Related: 100 Mile House under evacuation order
At the same time, the mayor says they had been clear in making sure citizens knew they needed to be ready to evacuate.
“It was a big surprise to citizens, but I don’t think it was as big as it could have been,” he says. “We were pretty blunt at that meeting yesterday. We needed them to be ready, we needed them to put their stuff in their cars.”
Norbord Inc. released a statement today (July 10) that the OSB Mill in 100 Mile House has temporarily suspended production due to to the wildfire.
“At the time of evacuation, the mill was secure,” the release says.
Campsall says he doesn’t know when people will be able to return to their homes.
“It all depends on what this fire does. We have no clue.”
Campsall calls the decision to evacuate 100 Mile House, “the hardest thing I’ve had to do.” He estimates he’s gotten about three hours of sleep over the past couple of days.
He says 100 Mile House remains smokey at the moment.
“We’re working hard. The fire is not being friendly, although I’m looking at the flagpole right now and the wind is down,” he says.
“All I gotta do is thank everybody,” he says. “Between Forestry, the RCMP, SAR, our staff, our fire department. It’s just been an amazing team to work with and I do count among the team our citizens as well. Because without them doing it the way they did we could not have succeeded as well as we did.”