Republished April 10, 2019 - 5:43 PM
Original Publication Date April 10, 2019 - 2:56 PM
PEMBERTON, B.C. - Residents of the Lil'wat First Nation are relieved after firefighters managed to get a grass and brush fire under control on their territory just east of Pemberton, B.C.
The First Nation's Chief Operations Officer Ernest Armann says the blaze broke out late Tuesday afternoon and 22 members of the community's volunteer fire department responded.
He says the Pemberton fire department and the B.C. Wildfire Service assisted and helped patrol the blaze all night, which scorched nearly a square kilometre of bush.
The Lil'wat set up an emergency operations centre and warned residents of 15 properties to be ready to leave on short notice, although Armann says no homes were damaged.
He says a few hydro poles were burned and will need to be replaced, and a falling tree caused a power outage on Wednesday morning but electricity was restored.
The provincial wildfire service says a cause of the wildfire has not been determined but it's believed to be linked to human activity.
The First Nation had lead jurisdiction over the blaze because it was on reserve lands, and Armann says he's glad the community has been working on emergency preparation.
"One of the things that was really interesting was how fast this fire moved. In a matter of minutes, it moved a kilometre," he says.
"It was good for us to learn this, and we're lucky that there were no people or infrastructure damaged or any houses."
News from © The Canadian Press, 2019