Updated City of Williams Lake Evacuation Plan in place

The City of Williams Lake will present its enhanced Emergency Evacuation Plan to the public during the Williams Lake Fire Department’s annual open house Sunday, May 8th.
"We invite everyone to come and see how we’ve improved our Emergency Evacuation Plan to better serve the needs of the community," says Fire Chief Randy Isfeld. "We encourage everyone to learn how the plan applies to their residence or workplace and how the community will be evacuated in the event of an emergency."

Revisions to the evacuation component of the City’s Emergency Response Plan were undertaken over the winter in response to the wildfires that briefly threatened the City last summer. The evacuation plan follows the three-stage evacuation process approved by BC’s Interagency Emergency Preparedness Council (IEPC): evacuation alert, evacuation order, and evacuation rescind.

An evacuation alert informs the population at threat of a potential impending danger, and may allow for the affected population to begin a orderly preparation to leave the affected area. An Evacuation order is a formal written order for the impacted population to evacuate the area specified immediately. Evacuation orders are mandatory and do not allow for discretion on the part of people in the affected area. An Evacuation rescind allows for the impacted population to return to a specified area.

The Evacuation Plan divides the City into 12 zones, which allows for specific areas to be evacuated where an evacuation of the entire city is not

required. Another purpose of the Evacuation Zones is to provide designated gathering areas for those residents who do not have transportation to leave the affected area. Buses will be provided to transport those individuals to a safe area.

The plan considers evacuations from a number of hazards or events including wildfires, earthquakes, severe weather, and toxic spills, among others.

Deputy Fire Chief Des Webster presented the plan to Council at its April 19 meeting, and the plan will also be available for view at the Fire Department’s open house May 8th at the fire hall at 230 Hodgson Road.

The Evacuation Plan will be available on the City’s website and will eventually be published in local resources such as the Guide to Active Living, Info Book.