Mount Underwood wildfire threatens to wash out Bamfield's summer season

Gillian Bradley is the owner of a restaurant and lodgings in Bamfield, BC, a coastal community under duress due to the Mt. Underwood fire. Submitted photo

While the Mount Underwood wildfire has shrunk nearly 50 ha this week, it’s still raging through 3,600 ha of forest just south of Port Alberni.

For the small coastal resort community of Bamfield—with its main road cut off by the blaze—the most vital part of the summer tourist season threatens to be a washout.

Bamfield and the neighbouring Huu-ay-aht First Nation community of Anacla aren’t at any physical risk of the fire, burning approximately 50 kilometres northeast of the community, but they are bearing the brunt of its effects.

Both communities lost power and the Bamfield Road from Port Alberni has been shut since the fire started in the afternoon of August 11, leaving resorts, restaurants, campgrounds, fishing guides and water taxis scrambling to stick-handle cancellations, uncertainty and financial strain, say local business owners.

“August is the one month that everyone in Bamfield relies on to make money,” said Gillian Bradley, owner of Flora's Restaurant and the Bamfield Inn.

“We’ve obviously taken a big hit tourism wise. It's a very, very tricky situation for all of Bamfield for sure.”

With the main road closed and authorities advising only essential traffic along the backroad route through Youbou from Cowichan, Bradley has been getting non-stop calls from visitors looking to cancel or postpone their stay.

Scott Wallace, owner of Pacific Sounds Lodge, is facing similar hurdles, saying up to half his guests have cancelled their visits.

“It’s definitely a blow,” Wallace said. “Everybody's going through some financial hardship, for sure.”

Residents and businesses in the region are well-equipped to weather power outages, but usually during the winter season, he said. Most people have back-up generators to keep essential equipment such as freezers running.

However, it’s the uncertainty tied to how long the power will be out that is making it hard for businesses to plan and adapt to the situation, he said. “There's really been no update from BC Hydro since the very first day it went out suggesting people prepare for 72 hours.

“Could it be another 24 hours or another three weeks of this? That [requires] quite different planning.”

Essential supplies like food and fuel, which are typically shipped into the region by marine transport, continue as usual. And visitors continue to arrive by sea plane and boat — like the Frances Barkley that carries passengers and freight into the community from Port Alberni.

People who come via alternate routes can day visit or possibly stay if they forgo some amenities, Wallace said.

“If they’re happy to have a bit more of a rustic stay, which means not hot showers but probably a hot sponge bath,” he said. “Otherwise, they can still have chef prepared meals.”

While Bamfield has been inconvenienced, the impact of the wildfire is nowhere near as severe as other destinations, such as Jasper, which was razed by a wildfire in 2024.

“There’s no real disaster here in town. It’s just a power outage,” he said.

“But it’s just withering away our main income for a year.”

Bradley and Wallace said they and others with generators are helping out other community members who need to plug in freezers, charge phones, or sneak in a hot shower.

“Our generator actually powers our whole property here,” Bradley said, adding they invested in more powerful equipment to draw people during the winter season.

“So, we're fortunate to have this at our fingertips and try to share it with the community.”

However, running generators is also expensive, she said, noting the resort just had to pay for a barge to bring a fuel truck in to refuel the generator.

The Huu-ay-aht Pachena Campground isn’t taking guests at the moment and the Nation has made arrangements to provide fuel to Anacla community members needing it to run generators.

BC Wildfire Service estimates the Mount Underwood Wildfire, about 10 kilometres south of Port Alberni, has grown to 3,406 hectares, or 34km squared.

Firefighting efforts are being concentrated on the northwest flank of the blaze closest to Port Alberni, with crews using heavy equipment to construct fuel breaks and guard lines, said BCWS.

Although the fire has grown rapidly due to drought conditions, steep terrain and wind, it has expanded “in line with expectations,” and is moving northeastly away from urban areas, according to the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District Emergency Program.

However, smoke from the fire has been cloaking Port Alberni, eastern Vancouver Island and parts of the Sunshine Coast and air quality alerts issued Thursday warned conditions would likely last into Friday.

Julia Caranci, BCWS information officer, said rain is expected in the next several days, which will likely moderate the fire activity, but is unlikely to contain it.

“It will assist us in lowering the fire behaviour and being able to possibly do more direct attacks along [the fire’s] flank,” she said.

“But this is a large fire and an emerging incident, and has been displaying pretty high fire behavior over the last three days, so regardless of how much rain we get, we will be continuing to work on this fire into the next days, or weeks.”