A former Emerson resident, who moved to Vernon, British Columbia (B.C.) nine years ago, is dealing with the wildfires in the province.

Lisa Froom is roughly five hours away from the biggest fires occurring in Williams Lake and noted that because Vernon is in a small valley, the smoke has come into the area and is just hovering in it.

"The smoke is definitely unpleasant. I am very grateful that I don't have any breathing issues, but I can only imagine people who do struggle with respiratory conditions. It must be very difficult," said Froom. "We do see some people that are out walking and about that do have some face masks on to help with that. You can definitely smell it in the air. We have hills and mountains around us and it's now really hard to see the peaks of them now, because the smoke is really heavy."

However, Froom explained there is a minor fire happening roughly twenty minutes away from their residence, which is still burning. She added the fire is about seventy-five percent contained at the moment.

"I know that the last I heard there was about eight homes lost," said Froom. "I know we did have some pretty strong winds, but today (Tuesday) is just a light breeze and the temperatures have cooled in the last couple of days. (Unless there's) unforeseen circumstances of lightning striking somewhere, we should be safe from the fires that are burning for sure."

Froom noted earlier this year the area experienced a flood, but with the terrain and landscape of the area caused the water to run down the hills and into the lakes, leaving the hill sides and everything else super dry.

Around 550 people have evacuated into the Vernon area from Williams Lake and a variety of different areas affected by the wildfires in B.C.

"Some people have left (from Williams Lake) voluntarily over the last week and it was two or three days ago that they actually had an evacuation order," said Froom who stated lots of people from Williams Lake have connections to Vernon. "We have some really good friends who are from Williams Lake. She is living here in Vernon, but her family is up in Williams Lake. She was in close contact with them and they are now all down here staying with a relative in Vernon."

For a city of approximately 40,000 people Froom stated they've noticed more traffic and more people throughout the City.

According to Froom everything is super dry and a lot of the fire's had been started by lightning strikes, which is unfortunate.

The provincial government has implemented a province wide fire ban at this time.