Wildfire near Princeton, B.C., forces evacuation of music festival

A wildfire discovered west of Princeton, B.C., Sunday evening forced the evacuation of a nearby music festival, according to local officials.

The Rice Road wildfire, located approximately 12 kilometres from Princeton and four kilometres from Coalmont, was estimated at around 16 hectares in size and classified as out of control as of Monday morning.

“A group of four was riding all-terrain-vehicles (ATV) in the Coalmont area, when one of their ATV's caught on fire,” according to a news release from the Princeton RCMP. “The ATV fire subsequently caused a wildfire to spread rapidly toward Colemont, a village of 500 people. Also held in the area was a music party with up to 1000 participants.”

Princeton Mayor Spencer Coyne said concerns over the blaze prompted a tactical evacuation of the music festival with hundreds of attendees, as well as a forestry campsite and some nearby properties.

Vancouver-based DJ Chris Carew was playing at the Under the Stars festival, a four-night event that began on Thursday. He had just wrapped up his set a few hours before the fire sparked Sunday.

Carew told CTV News he quickly grabbed the essentials he needed and evacuated.

“I was like ohmigosh, are we going to be able to get out of here?” Carew recounted. “It got very smoky and started to rain ash, and as we were driving out down the road it was almost like driving through hell.”

The fire started several kilometres away from the music festival site, according to officials.

Princeton staff procured a large bus from the Princeton Posse junior hockey team to help festival attendees evacuate, but Coyne said the vast majority of people left the area on their own.

"There was a steady stream of traffic leaving the area," he said. "By 1:30 in the morning we had everybody out. That's a pretty fast evacuation when you consider how many people were out there."

A note on the Under the Stars Facebook page warns there are "no refunds due to natural disasters or B.C. government closures or pandemics."

Carew said many festival goers, including himself, went back to the festival grounds Monday to pack up the rest of their belongings and head home.

RCMP said no one was injured and everyone safely evacuated, adding that all the ATV riders were also safely accounted for.

No structures were threatened Monday morning and there were 29 firefighters battling the blaze with support from two helicopters and multiple air tankers, according to the BCWS.

Meanwhile, evacuation orders and alerts remain in place for the Eagle Bluff blaze burning west of Osoyoos, as does a local state of emergency for Electoral Areas "A" and "B." 

The latest details on local evacuations are available on the RDOS website.