Several residents who were evacuated from the Village of Lytton Friday have been allowed to return home, Mayor Denise O’Connor says.
She says lighter winds have improved the situation, even compared to just a day ago.
“Those who are evacuated from the village of Lytton returned last night, and others are returning today,” she said.
“In the village this morning, the wind is fairly calm. There’s a slight breeze. When I woke up, there was a lot of smoke that had settled in the valley overnight.”
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O’Connor says the townsite has power, but that’s not the case everywhere in the region.
“There are power outages down the highway to around where the fire started,” she said.
“Power has not been restored yet there, because power poles burned. My understanding is [BC] Hydro is there replacing the power poles as we speak.”
The mayor says most residents were prepared to grab their go bags ahead of the evacuation order.
There have been no formal reports of properties damaged within village boundaries, she says.
Twenty of the homes lost in the 2021 Lytton wildfire have been rebuilt, according to O’Connor. The Chinese Museum is also finished, and the Legion will be opening later in the summer, she says.
The Saw Creek fire has grown to more than 700 hectares and has forced the closure of Highway 1 between Ashcroft and Boston Bar.