City of Williams Lake on evacuation alert

Residents in Williams Lake have been issued an evacuation alert.

#Evacuation Alert: City of #WilliamsLake: https://t.co/oipHEnib2d #BCWildfire @BCGovFireInfo

— Emergency Info BC (@EmergencyInfoBC) July 11, 2017

The following is a news release from the City of Williams Lake that was issued at 6 p.m.

City Wide Evacuation Alert Issued due to Potential Weather Events

A City wide EVACUATION ALERT is being issued due to weather events that are being forecast for Wednesday.  This predicted weather has the potential to push fires to the West of Williams Lake towards the City at a rapid pace.

At this time the alert is precautionary but it is important to give residents ample warning to allow everyone to make all necessary preparations.

Preparing for evacuation:

• Pack your identification, clothing and medications for at least three days
• Alert family and loved ones of the situation, give them the location of the reception centre so they can locate you in the event of an evacuation
• Make arrangements for your pets
• More info on planning go to www.williamslake.ca and click on Emergency Planning for information and links.

An EVACUATION ALERT is a notification of POTENTIAL danger that might arise.  An evacuation alert does NOT mean you have to evacuate; rather, you should be prepared to evacuate with very short notice. The reason evacuation alerts are issued is to notify residents of the potential for loss of life from unstable fire conditions.

This alert may be followed by an order to evacuate and when an evacuation order is issued you must leave your home immediately. Please monitor your local radio station for situation updates.

An emergency reception centre has been established at Lake City Secondary (Carson Campus) and any persons self-evacuating should report to this centre.  Any person who wishes to evacuate now but are physically unable to do so should call 250-392-2364 and assistance will be arranged.

Should the status change, the public will be notified immediately through all means possible and everyone is encouraged to monitor local radio stations, legitimate social media sites, as well as the City of Williams Lake Facebook page, Twitter and website.