Hi everyone,
On Monday night, August 11th, a forest fire erupted on Mount Underwood, near China Creek and Port Alberni that quickly grew to 34km2 and is still out of control. The emergency response started immediately from the BC Wildfire Service, the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District (ACRD) Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), and the Huu-ay-aht First Nations.
Bamfield was not in danger or not put on any evacuation alert, but by August 12th, the Bamfield Main Road was closed and the Cowichan Route limited to essential and local traffic only to ensure the community could respond safely. We want to thank all the emergency responders, firefighters and support staff who have been working to combat this unprecedented wildfire and manage the response.
As a marine station, the BMSC is resilient and well-equipped under these conditions with our backup power, but the community at large is experiencing growing challenges without power. We are cautiously optimistic that the rains last week have been enough to quell fears of the fire reaching Port Alberni. However, we now know that more than 20km of damage has occurred to poles and lines. We anticipate that the extent of the power outage will be at least two more weeks, and we are unclear when the main road will be opened.
We continue to work daily with the ACRD, Huu-ay-aht First Nations, the BC Ministry of Advanced Education and our member university emergency response teams on providing support services as a critical part of the emergency operations response for the Huu-ay-aht and the broader community. For example, our dive shed is now a shower and laundry facility for Huu-ay-aht Elders and citizens in need. We also continue to work with researchers who need essential/critical access for their research programs. As we work through the immediate gaps of what the community needs, the HFN and the ACRD are working to secure resources needed for BMSC to be able to support this developing emergency response. I am also speaking with government and met with Minister Osborne this afternoon.
In terms of next steps, we are committed to Fall University Programs starting on September 2nd, but the students will be working on backup power and energy conservation conditions. Delivery of other programs and essential research will be evaluated based on capacity and safe access to Bamfield in the coming days, but we fully expect to be operational.
We want to thank everyone who reached out to support, our member universities for their guidance, and many thanks to the entire BSMC team for their engagement in working through these challenges to support your research and education programs.
We will provide another update in the coming days and, as always, reach out anytime.
Sean Rogers
Executive Director