Fort Nelson, B.C., wildfire doubles in size as 3,000-plus ordered to evacuate

The wildfire that sparked Friday and caused evacuation orders for more than 3,000 people in Fort Nelson, B.C., and the nearby Fort Nelson First Nation, has grown to nearly 1,700 hectares in size, according to a Saturday morning update from the BC Wildfire Service.

The wildfire that sparked Friday and caused evacuation orders for more than 3,000 people in Fort Nelson, B.C., and the nearby Fort Nelson First Nation, has grown to nearly 1,700 hectares in size, according to a Saturday morning update from the BC Wildfire Service.

Some people living northwest of the community were given just minutes to leave their homes as authorities implemented "tactical evacuations" Friday evening.

"It literally would have been firefighters and RCMP knocking on the doors of those rural community members that are within a kilometre of where that fire is burning and saying, 'You need to get out,'" explained Rob Fraser, mayor of the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality, of which Fort Nelson is the administrative centre.

Now known as the Parker Lake fire, the blaze is considered a "wildfire of note," meaning it is highly visible or poses a threat to public safety.

There are four initial attack crews and one unit crew from the BCWS responding to the wildfire, and nine helicopters are fighting it from the air. An incident management team and a structure protection specialist are also on scene, according to the wildfire service.

The fire grew rapidly after its discovery Friday afternoon, surging from an initial 50 hectares to approximately 800 by the service's final update of the night. By Saturday morning, the size had doubled to 1,696 hectares.

Speaking to CTV News Friday night, fire information officer Sharon Nickel, of the BCWS's Prince George Fire Centre, said 70-kilometre-per-hour winds from the west and northwest had driven the fire's explosive growth.