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VIDEO: BC Wildfire incident management team in place at Cariboo Fire Centre

A 14-member team arrived Sunday and began work Monday in the Cariboo Fire Centre at the Williams Lake Airport to take over managing the Williams Lake area fires.
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BC Wildfire information officer Noelle Kekula arrived with the incident management team at the Cariboo Fire Centre said the 14-member team arrived Sunday at the Williams Lake Airport. Monica Lamb-Yorski photo.

An incident management team arrived at the Cariboo Fire Centre Sunday and has spent Monday meeting and assessing priorities, said fire information officer Noelle Kekula.

“Currently we are trying to get a handle on how many resources we have on the fires in the Williams Lake area,” Kekula said. “We have numerous pieces of equipment, B.C. Wildfire crews, contract crews, and we have locals working, so we have a variety.”

There are six incident management teams in the province that are brought in to manage larger fires, she added.

“Our team has been brought in and we are now calling it the Central Cariboo Complex Fire, which means there are numerous fires that we are managing as a team,” Kekula said. “There’s a team at 100 Mile House and a team at Ashcroft too.”

When asked specifically what equipment is on the ground, Kekula said she was in the process of determining that and would have an update later Monday.

Here fire information officer Noelle Kekula discusses the incident management team now in place at the Cariboo Fire Centre.

On Friday, June 7 when the lightning strikes hit the area sparking several wildfires in the area, the CFC was evacuated due to proximity of a wildfire near the Williams Lake Airport.

By Saturday, however, the staff and crews returned to the Cariboo Fire Centre and have been there ever since.

The Williams Lake Airport is closed to commercial flights, but is in use for firefighting and emergency transportation.



Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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