The Columbia-Shuswap Regional District says residents in the communities of Anglemont and St. Ives will be given Emergency Support Services if they choose to leave their homes.

Both those North Shuswap communities are not on evacuation order or alert, but its not clear how many people have been roughing it out at home without power over the past week.

“We applied to the province for special permission to [offer them Emergency Support Services] and they were very quick to grant that,” Emergency Operations Centre, Director, Derek Sutherland, said, Thursday.

“Any time they want to come out, they’re more than welcome to, and we will support them.”

Supports for residents who voluntarily choose to leave will include food and shelter. They’re being told to contact the CSRD Emergency Operations Centre at 250-833-3399 or the ESS team at 250-833-3360 for more information. The ESS Reception Centre has been set up at the Fifth Avenue Seniors Activity Centre in Salmon Arm, located at 170-5^th Avenue SE.

Sutherland says the CSRD is also working to support residents in Anglemont and St. Ives who want to stay in their homes.

“We have hired a barge and we are barging supplies into the north Shuswap,” he said, noting the RCMP is helping to coordinate those efforts. “Of course, we have the forestry road that is available to us to get those supplies into. Obviously, we’d prefer to go in on the road but its just not safe to do that right now, so we are having to get creative.”

“We have been trying to support them sheltering in place as well and saying at home. We have been bringing out supplies and get some bins and freezer trucks for spoiled food in their fridges and freezers because we know that’s an issue.”

People who are in areas not on evacuation order who need support with medical prescriptions are also being told to call 250-833-3397.

Permits to access areas in the North Shuswap under evacuation order are not being issued at this time, owing to “safety concerns and active fire conditions.” The CSRD says permits may be granted for the Sorrento area, with people being told to either call 250-833-3397 or email here.

CSRD spokesperson, Tracy Hughes, told Radio NL on Tuesday that while people who mean well may want to run supplies over to the North Shuswap by boat on their own, they could end up unintentionally interfering with BC Wildfire Service operations on Shuswap Lake.

“If they’re doing that through our channels, that is a lot more effective than them trying to get in their boats,” she said. “Often BC Wildfire has limited windows with all this smoke where they can launch aircraft. So we need to be keeping that availability open.”

Hughes’ comments came as locals in the North Shuswap took to social media to voice their frustration, saying they’re not being denied supplies and resourced needed to protect their homes and communities from the Bush Creek East fire.

Those issues came to a head Wednesday night, as members of the group that organized itself on Facebook hoped to push through the RCMP blockade on Highway 1 outside Sorrento, claiming its plan was to provide support to those property owners still fighting fires inside.

A statement from the RCMP says the standoff ended after about an hour, with no arrests and no charges anticipated.

The RCMP, the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District, and the BC Government continue to encourage people to leave areas under evacuation order, citing the active fire and other hazards like damaged powerlines as well as unstable trees and structures.