A week ago, lightning started the Ross Moore Lake wildfire, which forced the evacuation of 327 properties
Crews are making good progress on putting out a wildfire about 10 kilometers south of Kamloops, B.C., so the order to evacuate hundreds of homes has been changed to an alert.
The Thompson-Nicola Regional District is letting the people who live in 327 homes go back home, but they have to be ready to leave again quickly.
Lightning started the 26-square-kilometer Ross Moore Lake fire a week ago, and people had to leave their homes from Lac Le Jeune to near the edge of Kamloops.
The regional district says that 18 properties are still under an evacuation order, but the City of Kamloops has lifted the alert for the Knutsford neighborhood, which is southeast of the city. This is because the B.C. Wildfire Service says that cleanup is happening on the side of the fire that is closest to those homes.
The fire is still considered to be out of control, but guards are being built, and 40 more firefighters were expected to help mop up and patrol areas all day.
The wildfire service says that there are about 380 fires burning in B.C., including 22 “fires of note” that are big or dangerous. However, officials say that only three new fires have started in the last 24 hours.
Recent rain and cooler weather have made it less likely that wildfires will start in many parts of B.C., but forecasters say another hot spell is coming next week, and the rain hasn’t helped much with the province’s extreme drought.
Watering restriction
Metro Vancouver announced that Stage 2 watering restrictions will start next Friday because of the coming hot and dry weather.
George Harvie, who is in charge of an organization that works for about two dozen local governments and First Nations on the inner south coast, said that Metro Vancouver residents still use more treated drinking water than the average person.
Harvie said in a statement, “We are taking this proactive step to make sure that the 2.8 million people who live in our region will have enough water to drink and do other important things for the rest of the dry season.”
Stage 2 restrictions say that you can’t water your lawn at all.
Metro Vancouver says that since the beginning of May, water use in the region has been about 20% higher than the same time last year. This means that people are using more water every day than they did in 2022.
Under Stage 2, you can’t water your lawn or clean your sidewalk or driveway. You also can’t fill or top off water features like fountains.
But vegetable gardens can be watered at any time, and trees, shrubs, and flowers can be watered by hand, with soaker hoses or drip irrigation at any time, or with a sprinkler between 5 and 9 a.m., the district said.
In May, Metro Vancouver and most of B.C. started Stage 1 watering restrictions, which limit the days and times when lawns can be watered.