A wildfire burns on a mountain behind an RV park office in Cache Creek, B.C., in the early morning hours of Saturday July 8, 2017. More than 3,000 residents have been evacuated from their homes in central British Columbia.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
For years, the Lone Butte General Store has been a sort of oasis along the dusty stretch of Highway 24 southeast of 100 Mile House in British Columbia's Cariboo region. The store sells fresh fruit and vegetables, and without it, the hundreds of residents clustered around the highway would have to drive either 20 minutes east or west to reach the next grocery store.
But for the past few days, the shelves have been empty at the Lone Butte. The dozens of wildfires across the B.C. Interior, which have prompted a provincewide state of emergency, have left a number of outlying areas such as this one cut off, with spotty access to food or other supplies. In cases such as Lone Butte, towns without food sit next to fully stocked ones, but with evacuation orders or highway closings preventing residents from passing from one to the next.
Earlier this week, local officials in some of these areas, including the communities in the Cariboo, responded by declaring food suppliers an essential service and ensuring those trucks would be allowed past highway blockades whenever it was safe to do so. But the effects of the change haven't entirely caught up on the ground.
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Since receiving its last regular shipment last week, the Lone Butte store has been mostly sold out of milk, bread, eggs and fresh produce. The store was able to get some supplies on Tuesday after a truck destined for Lac la Hache – about an hour north – was turned away from reaching that town. Over and over, head cashier Louise Farthing has had to tell the customers lined up that the store is out of most basic necessities.
"We had some lettuce yesterday, it's gone. We had celery yesterday, it's gone," she said. "We've got a bit of water, but we could use a bit more."
Ensuring access to food is one of the many difficulties facing emergency officials as they respond to nearly 200 wildfires currently burning across the province. The sheer number of fires has made it a challenge to ensure firefighters and other resources are deployed where they're needed – hospital patients, for example, are being shuffled between communities.
On Tuesday, Ms. Farthing asked for permission to drive into 100 Mile House, about 20 minutes away, to stock up on supplies. But that town is under an evacuation order.
If she had been allowed to make the drive, she would have passed the 99 Mile Super Market, on the south end of 100 Mile House. There, owner John Sperling told The Globe and Mail on Wednesday that his store was open and fully stocked. Mr. Sperling's family left town after the evacuation order Sunday, but he chose to stay behind and monitor the situation.
"I've got fresh bananas and deli and water on the premises," he said. But the town is empty and the closings are preventing anyone from coming in. All morning, he said, he's been fielding calls from people from local communities looking for supplies. He's contacted the local district office to tell them about the food, but beyond that he's unsure of what else to do.
About 20 minutes east of Lone Butte, at the Interlakes Market, they, too, are fully stocked. "We're getting calls every 20 minutes. 'Do you have bread? Do you have milk? Do you have water?'" manager Paddi Cumiskey said.
Cariboo Regional District chair Al Richmond said officials were first made aware of the problem earlier this week, after hearing from a number of outlying communities saying they were facing food shortages. On Monday, they made the change to ensure that RCMP officers would let food suppliers past highway blockades.
Still, he acknowledged that officials have not advertised this change, due in part to fears that people could take advantage of it. He said that some grocers and suppliers may still be unaware that they are allowed past blockades. In other cases, he said, residents may simply have to try a different town or store than the one they're used to.
Elsewhere in the province, other areas affected by wildfire closings have also been struggling to keep grocery shelves stocked. The Hagensborg Mercantile near Bella Coola had empty and near-empty produce and dairy shelves for much of the week. They finally received a fresh shipment on Wednesday.
In that case, shortages were due to people panicking and stocking up on extra supplies, store manager Greg Cherry said. "Normally, they wouldn't come in and buy three or four jugs of milk at a time. A lot of people were doing that," he said.