Ashcroft has received a $25,000-dollar grant to do evacuation route planning in the village.
Mayor Barbara Roden says the money comes from the Union of B.C. Municipalities, which made money available after the Elephant Hill wildfire.
She says an evacuation route is especially needed for the Sage Mesa subdivision on the south end of town.
“I’ve lived up here for 22 years, and it took the Elephant Hill wildfire in 2017 for me to really think, there is only one road in and out of the Mesa subdivision and there are about 150, 160 homes up there. And so that was a concern we really heard a lot about after the wildfires, was what if something happens and it cuts off that one road,” Roden says.
“Particularly at the Mesa, but not just the Mesa. Look at potential routes, impacts on the environment, on private property. Consult with the public, with property owners, with the TNRD, first responders, First Nations.
“So that we can say ‘right, these are the viable evacuation routes and this is the next step forward.’ Because as I said, that [the Elephant Hill fire] was a real concern for a lot of people and a real eye-opener for a lot of people. It’s just something you don’t think about until the unthinkable happens.”
The village was on evacuation alert for two days when the Elephant Hill fire broke out in July of 2017. The blaze destroyed more than 200 buildings in communities north of Ashcroft and grew to more than 190,000 hectares.