Zeballos citizens are dishing out meals in their community hall to firefighters battling the 90-hectare Gold Valley Main wildfire burning on a steep slope in rugged terrain above the village.
The danger from rolling burning debris and rocks landing by homes led to six houses on the east side of the village being evacuated Saturday.
“Everybody is chipping in and helping each other,” Lynn Hipwell, of Zeballos, said today, just before leaving to do lunch duty at the hall.
Members of the Ehattesaht First Nation, to the west of Zeballos, have been donating too. Just this morning a big carrot cake was dropped off by a woman from Ehattesaht, Hipwell said.
Volunteers provide breakfast, lunch and dinner to provincial and municipal fire crews and emergency workers fighting the fire which is burning uphill.
“Our crews are so grateful,” said Donna MacPherson, fire information officer for the B.C. wildfire service’s Quinsam Complex at Campbell River.
Hipwell said, “We’ve been cooking for them the whole time.”
Being busy and cooking in the community kitchen is helpful in this situation, she said. “You’re doing something positive.”
The community of slightly more than 100 residents, is on northwest Vancouver Island.
“We are just making some meal plans for days ahead and just trying to keep on top of it. And we seem to have people coming in and out who can do grocery shopping for us and bring stuff in,” Hipwell said.
One family with teenagers is among those who were evacuated. They took their large travel trailer and drove across the bridge to stay out of range of the fire. Other evacuees have left town to stay with family, she said.
The evacuated houses are all single-family and none are on farms.
Residents on the east side of the village, which is on evacuation alert, can cross the new Sugarloaf bridge to get out of the way of the fire if necessary, said Hipwell, who lives in that area with her husband, Mayor Donn Cox.
Many village residents remain in their homes.
“Some people who, if it made them too anxious or just felt uncomfortable, have gone out of the community and are staying in other communities until it passes. That’s OK too. Everybody deals with the stress differently.”
There have been about 16 or 17 emergency services and firefighters on the scene in the past few days.
“Because there is a great amount of [emergency] people in here, I think that has calmed everybody down.”
A recent meeting with Zeballos residents and Ehattesaht members with fire and municipal officials was held to answer questions and provide information, Hipwell said.
The fire has frightened some residents. “As the fire has burned, some of the trees have been falling and the rocks have been falling,” Hipwell said.
“We are finding burnt leaves and we’ve got ash that’s come right into the house as well.
“It’s pretty smoky here right now.”
Fire crews “have been watering down the houses that are right under the cliff where the fire is burning,” she said.
“They’ve been watering down the hillside, as well as cutting back debris and brush behind the homes, so that is not going to catch on fire right behind them.”
The Gold Valley Main fire was started by lightning, as was the 200-hectare Pinder Creek fire near the Zeballos forest service road, the only road into Zeballos. Emergency crews have been fighting that blaze as well, which is 10 per cent contained.
A Sikorsky Skycrane, a twin-engine heavy lift helicopter, has been called into help fight the fire near Zeballos. It is spreading a heavy mist of water over and near the fire in order to change its behaviour.
This mist is similar to a light rain. The aim is to cool off the fire and cool the ground, said MacPherson.
The Sikorsky hovers over Zeballos Inlet and uses a tube to suck close to 9,500 litres (2,500 gallons) of sea water into its “belly tank,” she said.
At the base of the fire, crews have assembled a system similar to agricultural sprinklers to help protect homes, MacPherson said.
Specialists working at local fire departments are seconded to the provincial fire service to set up the equipment.
The Pinder Creek fire, which is moving up a cliff, and has nearly doubled in size since Saturday.
This fire is close to the only road into Zeballos and is contained along the road. Crews are cutting down trees to get rid of possible fuel.
The road is being shut intermittently for 10 to 15 minutes at a time when a tree comes down and an excavator moves it out of the way. “We are trying very hard not to impact the people of Zeballos,” MacPherson said.
The other main fire on the Island is the five-hectare Larry Lake fire, six kilometres northeast of Port Alice and also started by lightning. It is 10 per cent contained.
Like the others, this fire is burning on a steep slope. Power was turned off on Saturday for a period of time to bring in a special machine to go into the area and take out trees near B.C. Hydro lines, MacPherson said.
The machine has a grapple arm and a saw, allowing it to reach out and cut down a tree. Firefighters are also working on that fire near the only road to Port Alice, she said.
There are 560 wildfires burning around B.C.
The province has announced B.C. is in a state of emergency. Three remote areas in northwest B.C. were ordered evacuated as well on Saturday.
