For any wildfire evacuees looking for a place to stay in Kamloops, there’s a 100-bed shelter at the gym at NorKam Secondary.

Dina Lambright, the executive director of Out of the Cold which is co-running the shelter space, is telling people to go there if they need a place to stay.

She says only one person stayed there last night from Logan Lake.

“Salvation Army is kindly showing up for meal service. We have security guards on site 24 hours a day, and have been for weeks now. It’s an air conditioned gym. We have showers. We have hygenial bags.”

She says it is meant for short-term accommodation, and if evacuees end up needing more than a few nights for somewhere to stay the staff will help those people find a place to stay longer term, such as a hotel room.

“But it certainly, in an emergency situation, can provide you a few nights reprieve, just to ground yourself and get a few meals and a shelter under your belt. So yes, it is absolutely open.”

Lambright says the shelter has been ready to use for several weeks, but she says it wasn’t until last night that they were told by Emergency Social Services to open the space.

With hotel lodging stuffed almost entirely full in Kamloops and Merritt, evacuees from Logan Lake were told to check in with ESS in Chiliwack if they had no place to go.

People were also told to be prepared to potentially sleep in their vehicles, which came as there is a heat warning in place for Chilliwack and much of southern B.C.