BC- Entire Province on State of Emergency status

Due to the high number of out-of-control forest fires in BC - the entire province is on "State of Emergency" status! In fact several towns have been evactuated and some people's homes and livelihoods have burned to the ground. It's just terrible. Seventy-five homes burned to the ground in one community. Most of the people have evacuated to Kamloops. The smoke is so thick in Kamloops, people can hardly breathe! The people of BC have been helping one another and it's quite something to see. I really feel bad for the people who lost their homes.

Wild fires are scary - I remember nearly being evacuated from the Sierras some years back. The smoke was thick, and it felt unhealthy even to walk around outside. It was interesting, though, because the forest department was using the lake I worked at as a water source. They'd fly a helicopter over the lake, swoop down, pick up water in a basket hanging from the copter and fly away. The amount of water they could carry looked so tiny as compared to the fire as a whole. At one point, there was something wrong with the basket (the release catch had released effectively making the basket larger than intended), the basket contained too much water, the amount of the water was more than the helicopter could carry (too heavy) so the once the helicopter swooped down, it couldn’t fly away again. It had to drop the water and tried again. After a few tries, they realized there was something wrong with the basket. I don't think I'll ever forget that.

On a more selfish note - I'm supposed to do a triathlon in Penticton, BC in two and a half weeks - I hope everything is under control. Smoke inhalation and triathlon don't go (I don't imagine).

tharrtel:

That was a scary experience! Thanks for the reply. Actually, I think Penticton is ok. I have not heard mention of it being in any danger in that area. It was mainly the intererior regions - Kamloops and areas to the North. My sister lives in Kelowna - not too far from Penticton and her area is fine. All the best in your race!

Thanks, Lad. I can't wait. I think Penticton has to be one of the neatest places in the world populated by the nicest people in the world. Truly.

I only live about 1 1/2 from the B.C. Alberta Border(On the AB side) We don't have any smoke from B.C. here but If thing keep going on the way they are we might. What B.C. could use right now is some of Quebec's rain. They've got to much of it and B.C. hasn't got enough.

Janelle