B.C. regional district chair pleads for more resources as wildfires rage

The head of the B.C. regional district most affected by raging wildfires is pleading for more help and resources from the province.

The Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako (RDBN) in the province's northwest has a population of around 40,000.

After a weekend that saw more than 24,000 lightning strikes across B.C. coupled with extreme heat warnings, dozens of fire starts in the region led hundreds of properties to go on evacuation order and alert.

It's leading the regional district's chairperson to call on the province to further aid communities — something made problematic by a historic wildfire season that has seen strained resources.

"We're extremely thin, we're extremely resource-poor at the moment," Mark Parker told CBC News.

"It's a bit of red tape and some things that I'm not keen on. I think we need to remove some of that and I'm pushing hard to get that done."

Among the numerous fires in the region are the Powers Creek wildfire south of Smithers, and two wildfires just east of Burns Lake. The Pinkut Lake wildfire led to an evacuation order on Monday evening.

As of 7 p.m. PT Monday, the regional district had issued 16 emergency alerts, seven of which were evacuation orders — including nearly 60 homes due to the Parrot Lookout fire on Monday evening.

B.C. Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma said at a news conference earlier on Monday that about 156 people were under evacuation order and 629 people under evacuation alert across the province. 

An evacuation alert means residents should prepare to evacuate their homes, possibly with little to no notice. An evacuation order means a resident should leave immediately.

Cliff Chapman, director of provincial operations for the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS), acknowledged that resources had been stretched thin by the record-setting start to the fire season.

He said that the BCWS, as a provincial organization, had to station resources within each region in order to be prepared for new fires, but said the province was looking for firefighters from outside the province as the forecast calls for more heat and lightning.

"We have put in a significant order to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre," he told the news conference. "We have asked for somewhere in the neighbourhood of 400 additional resources.

He added that they are working with partners in the U.S. to secure more resources, "not just for the next five days, but really looking at it through the lens of the next two months."