Last weekend, the encampment located right across from Smithers Town Hall caught on fire and based on what was found in preliminary investigations, the blaze was not started accidentally.
“The indications are rather that it was intentionally started and the RCMP have arrested someone, so that’s in process, that’s in the Police Court System now, you know, I guess just generally it was potentially a horrendous event and fortunately, nobody was killed, one person hurt, some property destroyed so out of the total potential, it was definitely not as bad as it could have been” - Gladys Atrill, Mayor of Smithers
But even with the the fact that total disaster was avoided thanks to Smithers Fire and Rescue, along with other first responders, getting to the scene quickly and containing the fire, it does continue to emphasize the fact that the encampment is not a suitable place for anyone to live and yet, it has remained in pretty much the same spot for almost the entirety of the 2020s.
“We’re in about the 5th year, it’s a very long time, during the pandemic, we saw a change in the way people who didn’t have housing were living in the community prior to the pandemic, there were a few places where. like in most communities, there are folks living, you know, rough in different parts of town, I think the change came during the pandemic when most people were told to go home, it was winter and it was clear that for some folks, there was no home to go to and a temporary shelter was created just on the edge of town that tided some folks over, over the cold months, and when that was no longer working, when people had moved out of there, folks started to re-gather in different parts of town still within the pandemic, so less people out and about checking on folks, and I think that is the first year that people started putting tents up where they are now and not just there, but that’s when the first tents showed up in the park from across Town Hall and it has just been a process since then” - Gladys Atrill, Mayor of Smithers
And coming up with solutions to this problem has also been challenging for the Town of Smithers since there’s only so much a smaller municipality like them can do on their own, but they do have a long term plan with BC Housing in place to build both supportive housing and a shelter and Smithers Mayor Gladys Atrill also expressed some cautious optimism that with a little help from their neighbours, they might be able to find a better way to help the residents of the encampment as well as everyone else who is negatively affected by it, but ultimately, the encampment’s future remains unclear for now.