Some residents won't leave B.C. community despite wildfire evacuation orders

It's been a calmer 24 hours on the wildfire front in B.C., but hundreds of properties remain under evacuation orders in the Central Kootenay region as anxious residents hope for the best.

It's been a calmer 24 hours on the wildfire front in B.C., but hundreds of properties remain under evacuation orders in the Central Kootenay region as anxious residents hope for the best.

From New Denver, where some evacuees from Silverton have been staying, video shows a wall of wildfire smoke choking the air and blocking any view of their village.

“The smoke has been pretty bad, actually, here for the last week… everybody here has a cough now because it’s just so thick,” said Tanya Gordon, the mayor of Silverton.

The Aylwin Creek fire, which the mayor said was a couple kilometres from Silverton at last report, has forced the evacuation of her community. But she said not everyone has left.

“There seems to be a little bit of hesitancy to leave,” the mayor said.

“I believe there’s a lot of people that feel there’s going to be no one protecting their property and I can assure them, we have so many fire departments from everywhere across B.C. here,” she explained.

“When we ask individuals to leave, it’s based on our safety concerns for them, our safety concerns for our firefighters and operational needs to have people out of the area sometimes so we can work effectively,” said Dan Seguin, RDCK emergency operations centre director.