‘It’s a responsibility’: animals moved out as B.C. fire risk looms

Will Unruh says the 13 bison he cares for at his ranch near the shores of British Columbia’s Green Lake know that something is amiss.

Smoke from a nearby wildfire is in the air, and they are staying close.

“They’re hanging out right in this little corral, right close to where I am all the time, and that’s because they’re like people. They’re nervous,” he said on the phone Saturday from his 777 Ranch.

The ranch was put under an evacuation order on Friday, one of multiple orders covering more than 1,000 properties at risk from the 1,040-square-kilometre Pear Lake wildfire burning out of control in B.C.’s southern Cariboo region.

Unruh was still on the property Saturday morning considering how to keep the last of his animals safe.

Earlier in the week, he got a call from the Thompson-Nicola Regional District offering him a team of people to help get his 30 cattle and five horses out of harm’s way, an offer that Unruh appreciated.

“Usually people talk badly about government, and I was just so blown away that it was their own initiative that they did it,” he said. “It’s quite impressive. I’m very impressed.”

The team arrived on Thursday, and the horses and cattle were loaded onto trucks to Kamloops.

Unruh said his bison have stayed as they are trickier to move, and more prone to panic in tight spaces.

He said he believes there are places on the property the bison could stay and be safe if the fire advances, or potentially be released onto Crown land if he had to flee.

Fire risk at his farm remained high Saturday.

The Pear Lake fire was among more than 130 wildfires that were burning in the province as of Saturday. Almost half were out of control. The provincial wildfire service said several blazes were exhibiting “aggressive fire behaviour” and warned that more regions could see fires spread thanks to strong winds from a cold front blowing through dry land.

Fire officials have said the front could bring thunderstorms, with little to no rain, and they were expected to sweep over southern B.C. this long weekend, increasing risk to areas that are already parched by drought.

Unruh said a bison ranch a few hours north in Quesnel has offered to help him. A decision will be made this weekend on whether to load the bison from that ranch and Unruh’s onto a truck to get them away from the flames, Unruh said.

Once his bison are safe, Unruh said he, too, will leave. He said life is more important than buildings.

“As a rancher, it’s a responsibility. You can’t leave your livestock there to be burned. I mean, that’s what you take on as a rancher. You raise them from a baby, and you take care of them,” he said.

The BC Wildfire Service said in a statement that it was strategically positioning ground personnel and aerial resources so that it could respond to new fires as quickly as possible as the cold front moved through.

It added that the cold front could increase winds and make firefighting efforts challenging.

Many evacuation orders have been issued for swaths of the Thompson-Nicola and Cariboo regional districts.

More than 1,800 properties have been ordered evacuated from an area that is more than 70 kilometres long and 65 kilometres wide, while the evacuation alerts fan out even further.

On Saturday, the Spuzzum First Nation issued an evacuation order due to the Brunswick Creek fire burning further to the south, while the Fraser Valley Regional District ordered dozens of properties evacuated in the Alexandra Bridge to Sawmill Creek area.

The T’it’q’et First Nation, near Lillooet, also issued an evacuation order early Saturday due to the Riley Creek Wildfire, covering T’it’q’et Indian Reserve #2, Towinock, and Indian Reserve #3, Kilchult. Hours later, the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District ordered some residents to leave due to the same wildfire.

The Bradley Creek fire, which began Friday and grew to just over 10-square kilometres, prompted the Regional District of North Okanagan to order residents of 20 properties to evacuate, and the Okanagan Indian Band said it issued evacuation orders, too, because of the same blaze.

The Regional District of East Kootenay, meanwhile, said it was going door-to-door telling residents in the Ta Ta Creek area, northeast of Kimberly, to prepare to evacuate due to threats from four new fires. Highway 95 in the area has also been shut.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 1, 2026.

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press