Right from the onset of the Hanceville wildfire on June 7 Yunesit’in Chief Russell Myers Ross knew his community needed its own First Nations firefighting crews.
Myers Ross said he was convinced fire crews from the community, which is located 90 kilometres west of Williams Lake near Hanceville, would stick around as long as possible to protect the homes of the 250 people that live in his community and would care more than anyone else.
“We really pushed hard to have our own fire crews,” he told the Tribune from Victoria Monday where he was visiting his wife and young daughters who evacuated there.
“And I was right because when the fire got really big and the ministry pulled back crews on the Saturday night July 15 because the wind picked up, our First Nations crews stayed. They saved seven houses in one subdivision. They were helped with a crew from Anaham too.”
No homes have been lost in Yunesi’tin so far, although there was one house that was just getting rebuilt that perished. It had a foundation and a few logs that burned.
“The fires burned right through some of the yards and burnt corrals but that’s it,” Myers Ross said.
On July 7, the community announced its own evacuation. Most people left, but a handful stayed behind because they have horses or they stayed to support the firefighters.
In the community there has been an ongoing kitchen in the administration building.
Supplies have been coming in so that has helped, while a lot of the supplies are from the community’s own sources.
“We got some things from a truck that was going to Xeni Gwet’in yesterday and our firefighters can go to Alexis Creek now, but it has been haphazard to be honest.”
A first aid person has remained in the community, but there has been no other medical staff.
Three days into the wildfire, the chief received a telephone call from Canada’s Minister of Indigenous and Aboriginal Affairs Carolyn Bennett, followed up by a call from Catherine Lappe, the ministry’s main executive for the western region.
“Both of them gave me assurance that they respected the leadership’s ability to handle the situation. Their assurance was that we would figure out the policy and how to recover funds afterwards and not to worry and just deal with our emergency for the moment. They followed up in writing as well.”
A few days later Lappe, along with Grand Chief Ed John and Chief Bob Chamberlin, vice-president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs did a flyover to see the wildfires for themselves.
They made a stop at Tl’etinqox and later met with Myers Ross at the Cariboo Fire Centre.
“They got to see the whole area and how significant it was,” he said of the meeting.
Initially Myers Ross set up an office in Williams Lake at one of the Tsilhqo’tin National Government’s emergency offices and for the first three days was receiving phone calls every five minutes, he said.
The community has its own news and events Facebook page which Myers Ross maintains for the most part.
Eventually the Hanceville wildfire was combined with the Riske Creek wildfire and since they have been reported as one big wildfire.
As of Monday, July 24, the Hanceville-Riske Creek wildfire was an estimated 131,958 hectares and 45 per cent contained.
Myers Ross said each year the community tries to train 30 firefighters and then hires two five-man packs for the fire season.
“This time we ended up getting 10 guys, plus two skidders from the BC Wildfire Service and then we created our own two five-man packs,” he said. “From what I’ve heard they have worked well together. There has been a lot of camaraderie, especially the night when they ended up saving homes and received an outpouring of support from community members who had their homes saved.”
