100 Mile House Mayor Mitch Campsall says fire crews are working hard to protect the District of 100 Mile House — particularly the sawmills.
“We’re in trouble. The community could lose our sawmills and if that’s the case we will have trouble getting our lumber yards back here again,” he says.
“The Ministry of Forests is working really hard for that and so is our team and so are the two mills. They are just working their backsides off and they are doing everything,” he says.
“They’ve done 100 per cent — 110 actually.”
The Gustafsen fire started just outside municipal boundaries, along the Gustafsen Lake Forest Service Road near Exeter McKinnley Road, not far from the Norbord mill.
The fire however, thanks to the winds, has spread north away from the mills.
“That is the direction we want to keep the fire moving,” says BC Wildfire Information Officer Heather Rice.
“It’s the wind that is always our biggest struggle when we are fighting fires and the biggest undetermined factor.”
The fire centre is planning a controlled burn along the southern edge of the fire in order to protect the mills.
There has been confirmed structure loss due to the Gustafsen fire already, however it is not yet threatening 100 Mile House itself. The town is on an evacuation alert.
Related: Structures lost due to Gustafsen fire north of 100 Mile House
The biggest concern for fire crews, the District of 100 Mile House and the Cariboo Regional District is safety,
“You can build a new house, you can plant a new tree, but you can’t build a new body, so it’s all about the safety of each other,” says Cariboo Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett.