Follow and check regularly at the Squamish Lillooet Regional Distict’s facebook page for updates on the wildfire situation on what’s known as the Bendor Range Complex (Casper Creek (K71535) and Downton Lake (K71649) wildfires): https://www.facebook.com/TheSLRD.

The SLRD is doing an excellent job providing updates as things change rapidly, including the declaration of a provincial state of emergency on Friday evening.

On Friday at 6:30pm, the Premier and Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Bowinn Ma, confirmed that this is now “the worst wildfire season ever in British Columbia.”

In just 24 hours, the situation has evolved rapidly with numerous fires across the province threatening communities.

“At this time, we’re grateful that people are mostly following our call to not travel to certain areas and to stay out of the way of emergency crews so they can do their jobs. We are also seeing more and more people evacuated – and access to accommodation is becoming increasingly tight in the Interior. We need to ensure that accommodation is available for people who are evacuated.”

This might mean adjusting your own travel plans – certainly, now is not the time to head out camping along the In-shuck-ch FRS (Lillooet Lake Rd) around Strawberry Point, as some folk did, to have a nice campfire.

Neighbourhood watch walks might be advisable for any of us who live near favourite bandit camping spots, to make sure folks aren’t obliviously putting the entire region at even more risk.