Clinton resident says wildfire destroyed homes and towing business

Steve Larabie says his family escaped safely after a wildfire swept into the outskirts of Clinton, B.C., but two homes and his towing and autobody business were destroyed. His property is about three kilometres south of the village.

Larabie said the fire appeared to be roughly 20 kilometres away early Friday afternoon, then reached his property within hours. He initially stayed to protect the site, which held about 3,000 vehicles and 50 pieces of equipment, but said the flames and exploding fuel forced him to flee.

The BC Wildfire Service increased its estimate for the Pear Lake blaze to more than 190 square kilometres, from about 44 square kilometres the previous day. The fire is one of three in the Big Bar wildfire complex and officials expect all three to grow.

Clinton residents were ordered out Friday. Brian Doddridge of the village emergency operations centre said most of the community’s residential area appears to have survived after crews worked overnight, although there were structural losses and damage assessments will begin when it is safe.

An evacuation order was expanded to another 19 properties because of the Fiftynine Creek fire, while an alert now covers more than 430 properties east of Clinton, including the Loon Lake area. BC Hydro reported regional outages and said it was working with wildfire officials to assess damage and restore service where possible.

Provincewide, about 120 fires were active, with more than 50 burning out of control. Larabie said his property was uninsured for wildfire and that another towing company had offered his family temporary accommodation in Cache Creek.