A man from Boston Bar, B.C., says officials are “villainizing” those who defy evacuation orders, even though they have the expertise and willingness to pitch in to protect their communities.
Attila Banhegyi said the decision to stay is a more nuanced topic than the edict to just leave.
“Some people are equipped to stay behind in certain emergencies. And some are even willing to die to protect their own livelihoods. And I believe that’s a choice that they should be allowed to make,” he said in an interview Thursday.
The BC Wildfire Service said this week that its members had to rescue a resident whose property was surrounded by flames, in what is a lesson to those who choose to defy evacuation orders.
Crews fighting the Pear Lake fire near Clinton, B.C., encountered a man on Tuesday evening who ignored warnings to leave, incident commander Bryce Moreira told a briefing Wednesday.
“I won’t repeat exactly what he said but it was not a nice way and quite explicit,” Moreira said.
They left the man but later had to return to his rescue, Moreira said.
Banhegyi said there are “a few dozen” people who remain in Boston Bar who are not interfering with firefighting operations.
The wildfire service says it does not track who chooses to defy an evacuation order or are rescued because of it.
Fire crews will encourage those people to leave if they encounter them, though the service does not enact or enforce evacuation orders, an information officer said.
Moreira said evacuation orders and alerts are put in place for the public’s safety.
“When those crews needed to go rescue that person, it took them away from their ability to respond to the fire in the area and protect other values on the landscape — people, structures and homes,” he said.
In an update Thursday, the Village of Clinton warned that choosing to defy an evacuation order puts everyone in danger. “It’s not worth the risk,” it said.
A statement released this week from the Ambulance Paramedics of BC, the union representing around 6,000 ambulance paramedics and dispatchers, urged residents to leave when placed under evacuation order.
“Choosing to remain behind places not only you and your family at risk, but may also require firefighters, paramedics, police, and search and rescue teams to conduct dangerous rescue operations that could otherwise have been avoided,” it said.
There are 30 separate evacuation orders due to about 130 wildfires burning around the province. About 50 of those fires are burning out of control.
Officials with the Village of Clinton have said they would be calling residents this week who lost buildings on their properties from the Pear Lake wildfire, which has grown to about 732 square kilometres.
An update from BC Wildfire Service said it’s likely that fire behaviour will increase on Thursday as temperatures increase and an inversion in the area breaks.
A planned ignition along Highway 97 went ahead on Wednesday, but a further burn was put on hold Thursday due to poor conditions, the service said.
A resident from Six Mile Lake, about 10 kilometres from Clinton, said there is nothing left other than her burnt-out chimney stack and her neighbour’s propane tank after the fire tore through her property.
Carol Senzeni said she got the news by watching a neighbour’s video posted to Facebook, days after she escaped from the home on Friday.
Senzeni said she watched the flames as they neared her home, sending large plumes of smoke into the sky.
“I just threw what I could into the back of the vehicle. I took my two cats, and we left the property as fast as we could,” said Senzeni. “It was just a very turbulent and very quick exit.”
Senzeni, who has found refuge north at 108 Mile Ranch, said the experience was “very daunting” and “very scary.”
She said her cats are homesick, and they’ve been “keeping me up at night crying.”
Senzeni said she is grateful for receiving some support from the community, but she isn’t alone as her neighbours have also lost everything.
“The people who reside farther outside of Clinton, insurance companies are not willing to insure them because they are farther away from fire services that are also volunteer, and so it is a little bit of a predicament for very many people in terms of the devastation that they’re suffering,” said Senzeni.
Senzeni said many people in her neighbourhood went through trauma when they were evacuated during the Elephant Hill wildfire in 2017, which threatened numerous communities across the Interior as it grew to more than 191 square kilometres.
“This wave of wildfires that has come through Clinton and is moving northward and onward into other areas in the north, it’s rekindling old trauma, but also with new dangers,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 30, 2026.
