By Max Winkelman – 100 Mile Free Press
The Canim Lake Band has spent an estimated $100,000 as a result of the wildfires, according to Commander Don Dixon and Information Officer Helen Henderson.
“It’s not just the guards but it’s for two months of running the office and EOC team. The guards were just a small portion of it. We had food delivery too … when the Gustafsen Lake fire was happening,” says Dixon. The band put in guards after lightning strikes in August as well as patrols.
Following a recent flare up, the band was monitoring the South Canim Lake fire, he says.
“People were on edge when a lot of the smoke was coming in… People are hypersensitive after being two months on alert. When they heard the helicopters flying over or they smell smoke, they call our office to see what’s going on. A lot of smoke is coming from the Elephant Hill fire as well.”
One thing they learned right away was to have a housing list in place and how many members per household, says Henderson.
“One of the things that we had to plan quickly, for instance, would be the medical branch that we had. How many supplies that we had in the community. We had to find out really quickly… and then even in the households because we were cut off.”
Canim Lake has always been a progressive community, long before Henderson was involved, someone had the foresight to put together an emergency plan which helped them organize quite quickly says Henderson.
“The last time we activated that plan was in 1999 during the flood. That Gustafsen fire was the second time we activated that plan … I can’t say enough of that plan and how it allowed us to do the work that needed to be done.”
Henderson says they got a lot of positive feedback.
“We got a lot of positive feedback and the spirit was really warm and a really high sense of community spirit and community contributions because it took a lot of hands, a lot of minds. It was basically a collective of people looking after a collective of people.”
Their hands go up to the firefighters fighting the fires, says Henderson. When the band was closed in they accepted evacuees, had a cookhouse, community member doing security and fire watch and volunteers going door to door, she says.
Dixon says they were as prepared as they could be but that there’s always room for improvement.
Henderson also wanted to thank Dixon.
“He had the tremendous responsibility of the safety of all of our members in the community. The amount of pressure he was under and still is, to make life and death decisions tells us just how committed he is to all of us and how much love he has for his community.”
On the night of the evacuation of Aug. 12, their EOC team successfully evacuated 199 members with the use of 45 vehicles and one bus. They also transported four 4-H steers and three swine using two trailers, all within one hour’s notice, according to Henderson.