
Evacuee describes ‘surreal’ speed of B.C. wildfire that quadrupled in size
DAWSON CREEK — Shelley Calliou of the Kelly Lake Cree Nation said it was “surreal” how fast a wildfire threatening the community in northeast British Columbia moved.
She said she was told by the RCMP at 6 p.m. Thursday that she had a two-hour window to evacuate, with the Kiskatinaw River fire 18 kilometres southwest of the unincorporated community of Kelly Lake.
“Within those two hours, it moved 10 kilometres. It’s fast-moving,” said Calliou on Friday from Dawson Creek, B.C., where she said about 70 people had fled, about 80 kilometres north.
The fire that prompted the evacuation order for Kelly Lake and nearby areas on Thursday quadrupled in size overnight, as firefighters warned of “intensifying conditions” in the parched northeast of the province where most fire activity is concentrated.