On June 6, the British Columbia (BC) provincial government decided to close Highway 4 indefinitely due to the Cameron Lake Bluffs wildfire near Port Alberni on the east side of Vancouver Island.<\/p>\n
Highway 4 connects the east and west sides of the island and is the only major route connecting Port Alberni with other communities. There are 26,000 people around Port Alberni, 4,500 combined residents in Tofino and Ucluelet, and many tourists.<\/p>\n
On the 7th, the state government announced a detour connecting Port Alberni, Tofino, Ucluelet, etc. to replace Highway 4. However, since this detour is a narrow, rough road usually used by forestry workers, it takes time and mobile phones cannot be used, so we urged people to use it only when necessary.<\/p>\n
This detour was also temporarily closed on June 9. It was closed for eight hours to retrieve vehicles that had fallen into the lake and was reopened on the evening of the same day, but traffic is expected to take a long time.<\/p>\n
Cameron Bluffs wildfire was out of control as of June 10, with an area of about 200 hectares burned. BC Wildfire Services believes the fire was caused by human factors.<\/p>\n
A status update for Highway 4 is scheduled for June 13th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"