As wildfires continue to impact communities in the Slocan Valley, Tanya Gordon, Mayor of the Village of Silverton, says she’s proud of her community’s resilience.
The entire Village of Silverton was forced to evacuate on Wednesday in response to concerns about the Aylwin Creek Wildfire, which was first discovered on July 18 and has grown to be about 400 hectares in size.
In an interview with Vista Radio, Gordon says the community’s nerves are pretty high right now as they wait anxiously to hear about what’s going on in their community.
“Everybody’s doing okay. We have a great community here. Everybody’s looking out for everybody, and we have some good people looking after each other.”
For Gordon, the entire ordeal has felt overwhelming, but she’s been pleased to see communication improve between all levels of government.
“It has been overwhelming. I think I’m handling it okay. I have my moments, but I think we’re doing okay. We’re getting some more information coming in on a regular basis now, and that’s helping ease tensions around here.”
The communication issues surrounded the many alerts and links sent out to residents regarding the fires from the Regional District of Central Kootenay and BC Wildfire.
“BC Wildfire and the RDCK seem to be in their own lanes, which is normal, but nobody seems to share the information with each other. So when residents are looking for information, we get sent to six different websites and have to try to figure out what’s going on from those six different websites.”
Gordon said it’s improved now that the wildfire service brought in an Information Management team specifically for the Aylwin Creek fire.
“The communication was pretty poor at the beginning, but we’re starting to close some of those gaps and get some more information out there.”
As far as a timeline on when the evacuation order for the village will be lifted, Gordon couldn’t say, but assumes it won’t be until the fire is contained to an area that ensures the village is no longer in danger.
“I have faith in the firefighters, and I also have faith in Silverton. We’ve done a bunch of fire smarting around our community in the last couple of years, and I’m hoping that that’s a good enough job to help when this fire hits that point.”
For the time being, she reminds affected residents of the importance of signing in with the Emergency Support Service.
“I just want to take a chance to thank everybody that’s working very hard on these fires and the residents for keeping calm and patient with everybody. It’s a trying time for everybody, and if you have been evacuated from Silverton, please sign in with the ESS so we know where you are.”
Where to find information
The BC Wildfire Service is the primary source of information for all wildfire activity.
Regional District Central Kootenay (RDCK) is the primary source of information for evacuation orders and evacuation alerts.
Drive BC for all information on roads and road closures.
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