Tanya Gordon, the mayor of Silverton, has had a tense couple of weeks.
She has only been mayor since April, and the recent evacuation of the town in the face of the Aylwin Creek wildfire has tested her.
The community was put on evacuation alert on July 20 and an evacuation order was issued on July 24.
"It's been pretty stressful," she told the Nelson Star on July 25. Even before the evacuation alert, she was inundated with questions from residents.
"I have had residents coming to talk to me at all hours and my phone rings non-stop day and night. People just wanted answers."
People looked to her as a familiar face, more accessible than the employees of the Regional District of Central Kootenay or the B.C. Wildfire Service.
Mostly the visitors and phone callers wanted to know the status and the proximity of the fire. She said telling them to look at the wildfire app or the RDCK website doesn't work for people who don't use the internet or are not used to phone technology.
She said it has often been difficult to tell where the fire was or how close.
"It's just been that thick wall of smoke for days, so we've not even been able to see the fire."
Gordon has been posting updates on Facebook and plans to continue to do that during the evacuation while she stays with family in New Denver.
Silverton residents were advised that if the alert became an order, they should go to relatives or friends elsewhere, or to an evacuation centre that had been set up in Nakusp.
But when the evacuation order came down at 8 p.m. on July 24, the Wilson Creek fire north of New Denver had taken off, threatening traffic on Highway 6. Gordon said the highway was closed briefly.
So most evacuating residents turned around and took Highway 31A to Kaslo.
From Silverton there are only three highway routes out of town: north to Nakusp (blocked on July 24 by the Wilson Creek fire), south toward Nelson (blocked by the highway closure caused by the Aylwin Creek fire) and east to Kaslo (the only choice left).
"We need to sit down and talk about evacuation routes in this area," Gordon said. "Last night proved that there are very limited evacuation routes here. With the road closed to the north last night, we were only left with one route out."
Gordon said the evacuation alert of several days duration gave residents ample time to get ready, and also led to some desperate, last-minute mitigation measures.
"We had a lot of people firesmarting their property last minute, trying to get some trees and some dead bushes and stuff, and dry grass and leaves away from their house."
Gordon said the RDCK will have a permit system in place for people who want to return to their houses for any reason.
As a mayor who has gone through an evacuation, Gordon says her advice to other mayors is to have their municipal emergency plans up to date and detailed, even though much of the emergency planning is done by the RDCK.
Gordon says she would like to see better communication between BCES, the RDCK and municipalities.
"I'm hoping that we can build better relationships and have some more information sharing. Right now one agency deals with this, one agency deals with that, and they only filter out so much information, so you're constantly looking in all different directions for information."
Asked for a final word for everyone faced with fires in the region, Gordon said, "Stay safe and be calm. We're in this together and I'll try to update as best as I can as fast as I can."
