A rancher near Monte Lake is wondering why locals trained in fighting wildfires weren’t allowed to jump on the White Rock Lake fire the day it broke out.

Kari Powell and her husband run the Whistling Wind Ranch south of Barnhartvale.

She says other loggers and ranchers closer to the blaze, who she says have government-recognized firefighting certification of the S-100 and S-185 courses, were told they could not action it for 48 hours.

“Which I find is strange. Why wouldn’t you want to try and get it out when it’s small and easier to manage and put out, versus waiting to see what happens.”

That was on July 13, and the next day, the fire had grown to 300 hectares, which prompted the BC Wildfire Service to send two initial attack units, of three personnel each.

“When it was found, originally at 10 hectares, it was in a flat area. So I don’t know why they couldn’t have hammered it out, when it was easier access terrain, versus getting it into the hills and the valleys… Especially in conditions like this, when it’s that dry. The fire isn’t going to burn itself out when it’s this dry. So why they didn’t they just get it out?” Powell told NL News.

On July 15, two days after that fire broke out, the BC Wildfire Service said it did not have enough resources to respond to every new fire start because of extreme fire activity.

“Things need to change for managing forest resources and how fires are handled in the province,” Powell says.

NL News has asked the Ministry of Forests on Thursday why private landowners, trained in firefighting, would have to monitor a fire for two full days before being able to action it, and whether that is set-in-stone policy from government.

Powell had spoke to NL News on Thursday while on evacuation alert, before being put on evacuation order later in the evening; one of 676 properties within the TNRD ordered to evacuate after 8 p.m. last night. The family had already moved their 149 sheep and nine horses out days earlier, to O’Keefe Ranch, saying it took four 16-hour days to complete the move.

The White Rock Lake fire now covers 45,000 hectares, having grown dramatically Thursday night when it destroyed most homes and businesses in Monte Lake and many homes in Paxton Valley.

The cause of the White Rock Lake fire is still considered “under investigation” by the BC Wildfire Service. There was no lightning on the afternoon it broke out, which signals that it would’ve been human caused.

The fire has led to more than 1,300 evacuation orders and well over 5,000 evacuation alerts, between Kamloops and Okanagan Lake.