Residents in Hudson's Hope were able to sleep in their own beds Saturday night after being evacuated a week earlier due the encroaching Battleship Mountain wildfire.
“It's so nice to be back in our own community in our homes with clear skies,” said Mayor Dave Heiberg in an open letter on the district's website Sunday.
“It was shared with me that the structural protection operation that was deployed for this wildfire was the second-largest in B.C. history.”
Heiberg went on to thank a number of agencies and volunteers including the Emergency Support Services reception centre established at the North Peace Arena in Fort St. John.
Over 800 people were processed through the centre, said Heiberg.
"There are so many people to thank and so much to be thankful for. To my knowledge, not a single home or structure was lost, nor were any livestock."
Heiberg credited the B.C. Wildfire Service for "being instrumental in the strategic planning and deployment of resources to manage the wildfire."
The Battleship Mountain blaze remains a wildfire of note and covers an area of over 300 square kilometres.
Classified as out of control, the progress of the blaze has been held in check in recent days by cooler temperatures, higher humidity, and an added number of firefighters from the Bearhole Lake wildfire near Tumbler Ridge.
Highway 29 is open to all traffic both north and south of the community, re-opened after a Sept. 10 evacuation order was rescinded Saturday.
The Johnson Creek Forest service road remains closed.
