Those in Bamfield, B.C., support each other as wildfire cuts power, main road access

Mark Lawrence says residents of Bamfield, B.C., are used to relying on their generators for extended periods, and though he wishes it was easier to take a hot shower these days, the small community is coming together to support each other after a wildfire severed the community’s power and main road access.

“I know a friend who had two generators and took one over to somebody who didn’t have a generator. Not only did he take it over, he rebuilt the carburetor, filled it with gas, delivered it, started it, plugged it in, made sure everything was fine, (gave) advice on how to work it, and away you go,” he said in an interview on Friday.

“That’s just small communities, you know? The good parts of human nature, people come together and help each other. “

Power to the small community of a few hundred full-time residents has been off since Monday when an intense wildfire on central Vancouver Island cut off power and access to Bamfield’s main road.

BC Hydro has said it could be up to a week before it will be able to get the lights back on again.

Lawrence, who runs a small sport fishing company and lives in Bamfield six months of the year, said long-term residents prepare for extended power outages at least once every winter.

“I think the longest I’ve ever heard of the power being out for winter was 12 days or something like that. So, those people are prepared,” he said Friday as rain fell outside his window.

“They’ve got generators, they got food supplies, they’ve got extra gas, they’ve got everything they need. They’re just sort of rolling with the punches and seeing what develops.”

Lawrence said he watched a barge with two fuel trucks arrive on Thursday providing fuel for generators.

The Huu-ay-aht First Nations, whose traditional territory includes Bamfield, has begun providing 20 litres of fuel per day for generator use to its citizens.

The nation also cancelled all Bamfield reservations up to Tuesday, and local businesses will not process any new reservations for that time period.

John Alan Jack, chief councillor of the nation and the regional district’s board chair, said people are doing what they can to help each other, but problems are emerging as the outage stretches on.

“There are things like our sewer system works by pumping sewage from our community to the sewage treatment plant, and we need power to do that. It’s running off of a diesel generator. But the generators for our community hall as well as our administration building run off of propane,” he said.

“Most of the generators that exist in regards to the personal generation for houses, those run off of gasoline. So, there’s kind of a mixture problem going on, just the bare amount is necessary just to keep things running.”

Not everyone has the ability to hook their generators into their houses, meaning they rely on the direct connections to the unit, and that presents some difficulties, he said.

Jack said the nations are working with the provincial and federal governments to acquire larger scale power-generation units.

“(Acquiring them in) the next few days is probably not in the cards, and we understand that, but we are looking for an interim, midterm solution,” he said.

He said he’s hopeful that BC Hydro’s timeline for getting the power back on can be met, but that they need to prepare for the worst.

“What if there’s more than just a few danger trees before the power can be restored? What if there are footings that need to be figured out in geotechnical work?” he said.

Fire information officer Karley Desrosiers told a briefing Friday that BC Hydro had been given clearance to begin an initial damage assessment of its infrastructure.

BC Hydro spokeswoman Saudamini Raina said in a statement that the timeline for restoring power could take anywhere from a few days to a week depending on what the crews find.

“The timeline for restoring power will depend on several factors, including the extent of damage to our infrastructure, the amount of debris near or on our lines, and the stability of pole locations,” she said.

The drenching weather has helped calm the out-of-control Mount Underwood wildfire, to what the BC Wildfire Service said on Friday is now “mainly a smouldering ground fire.”

An update from the fire service said it was expecting up to 30 millimetres of rain on Friday, but that wouldn’t be enough to fully suppress the blaze and could also affect slope stability and cause problems with rockfalls and dangerous trees.

The intense wildfire grew to more than 34 square kilometres this week, at times displaying aggressive fire behaviour that the BC Wildfire Service called “unusual” for Vancouver Island, before it moderated on Thursday.

Desrosiers said 124 firefighters are working on the fire, which was burning eight kilometres from Port Alberni, and crews had seen “limited growth” overnight, especially in areas where there had previously been aggressive fire activity.

“The rain, combined with cooler overnight temperatures has really helped to moderate fire behavior, and that’s allowing our crews to get in and work in areas that were previously just too dangerous to access,” she said.

Smoke from the Mount Underwood fire triggered an air-quality statement in the region, along with parts of Vancouver Island’s east coast and the Sunshine Coast on the B.C. mainland.

Parks Canada said it was starting to limit visits to the popular West Coast Trail in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.

Jack said the fire feels like something that hasn’t been seen on Vancouver Island before, given how quickly it erupted and grew in such a dry season.

“It’s potentially a new situation for the people on the island to have to deal with,” he said.

About 80 fires are burning across the province, including four that are out of control.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2025.

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press