UPDATED: 4:15 p.m.

The Lytton Creek wildfire is now threatening Spences Bridge to the point where the community has been put on evacuation order.

The order came down at noon from the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, affecting 169 properties. The Cook’s Ferry Indian Band has also reportedly been evacuated, which borders on parts of Spences Bridge.

People being evacuated here are being told to stay with family or friends if they can, as the TNRD says there is a “critical shortage” of accommodation in Kamloops, something that has been the case for three weeks.

Emergency operations centre spokesperson Priscilla Kazarian says those without a place to stay can access emergency social services at Chilliwack Secondary School in the Fraser Valley, which is almost three hours away from Spences Bridge.

Today, the TNRD also put 94 properties on evacuation alert down the Highway 8 corridor, east of Spences Bridge. That alert area covers all the way to Canford, about 20 kilometres west of Merritt.

Just outside of Spences Bridge, the Shackan Indian Band has ordered IR 11 to evacuate because of the fire, and the Cook’s Ferry Indian Band has evacuated IR 1 3, 4, 4b, 4c, 7, 16, 17, 19.

Spences Bridge area director Steven Rice tells NL News he has watched the Lytton Creek fire “kind of explode” in the past two days, saying winds have gusting to about 80 kilometres per hour in the area.

“Those winds have continued, that’s the problem. They’re swirling winds; I sit here at the farm picking and planting seeds, so I feel the wind. It’s coming from north to south and then it’s coming from east to west, so when you get this sort of unpredictable wind pattern, I can imagine the type of challenges firefighters have. So that is what has brought this whole scenario to the point we’re at now.”

The fire started on June 30, and tragically burnt down most of the Village of Lytton.

The fire had stayed at about 9,000 hectares in size before dramatic growth this week. In a new estimate Thursday afternoon, it’s now listed at 24,365 hectares in size.