SQUAMISH, B.C. -- Elena Butler is spending her days supporting firefighters and evacuees, as well as getting ready in case she too is told it’s time to go.
"We’re just kind of planning what we’re doing," she told CTV News. "Having people on backup to come and get my chickens. I have 130 chickens."
She’s also invited evacuees to stay with her.
"That’s a wonderful thing," said Edrise Ardo, one of the evacuees. He and his dad were camping on the Cheekye Reserve, when they got a knock on their trailer door on Thursday.
"'Hey, you guys ready to move?'" Ardo said, recounting the incident. "We know that this is serious. I could see the fire running one way."
The wildfire now measures 203 hectares in size, up from 100 hectares on Thursday.
But that doesn’t mean the fire has doubled, explained fire information officer, Marg Drysdale.
"We had an estimated size of 100 hectares. We were able to get out and GPS the fire perimeter and the track size is 203 hectares."
Firefighting conditions have been favourable, she said, and crews are making good progress.
But it has been destructive.
"Unfortunately, there’s been a few people that have lost their properties and homes right now," said Butler.
She lives at one end of Squamish Valley Road, far enough away from the fire line that’s she’s not under an official alert, but close enough to become a staging area for support. She posted to the community Facebook group a need for hard hats, water, and food.
"Rona had donated vests and gloves and hard hats," she said, and 50 lunches were prepared by local business, What’s for Dinner.
"Tim Hortons sent up breakfast this morning," she said. "Nesters donated bottled water.”
Grateful to her community for support, Butler said it’s been "crazy" to try to manage all the people and their needs while trying to observe social distancing.
