Two days after Logan Lake residents were ordered to leave the community, the evacuation order has been officially updated to include the Highland Valley Copper Mine.

Deputy Mayor, Claire Newman, says it is due to the Tremont Creek wildfire which is threatening structures and the safety of residents.

“Because of the potential danger to life and safety, the District of Logan Lake has issued an evacuation order for Highland Valley Copper,” the evacuation order said.

People in any properties included in the evacuation order area on this map are being told to leave immediately. The preferred escape route is on Highway 97C towards Ashcroft as Highway 97D to Kamloops is closed.

The largest open-pit copper mine in Canada, Highland Valley Copper mine is located approximately 17 kilometres west of Logan Lake and about 50 kilometres southwest of Kamloops. Several Kamloops residents work at the mine, along with many people who call Logan Lake home.

“We have heard from many other HVC employees now who have received calls from supervisors telling them not to come to work tonight,” Lisa Segal said, in a post on twitter.

in a statement, Teck says all workers at the mine are being safely demobilized with the exception of a small number of employees necessary to responsibly ensure safety and environmental protection.

“There is currently no risk to infrastructure of the operation,” the company said, in a statement. “Teck is closely monitoring wildfire conditions and will restart operations once the evacuation order is lifted and it is deemed safe to do so.”

“Impact to production at HVC is dependent on the length of the suspension of operations.”

During a public information session held on Saturday afternoon, the BC Wildfire Service said the Tremont Creek fire was burning within one to three kilometres of Logan Lake.

“It is still moving south and I believe, at this point, it is probably one to three kilometres to the west of Logan Lake is where we’re seeing it at this time,” Fire Information Officer, Erin Bull, said.

An evacuation alert was issued for 59 properties south of Logan Lake, around the Mamette Lake area on Saturday afternoon. Late Friday night, an evacuation alert in Cherry Creek was expanded to include properties on the north side of Highway 1.

The Tremont Creek fire is an estimated 43,773 hectares – or 437 square kilometres – and it is still burning out of control.

“The fire is also being attacked by air and ground crews along the west and north sides of the town,” District of Logan Lake staff said. “Flames are visible from the town but no structures have been lost.”

“We have extensive fire truck crews established to fight any spot fires from embers that land on homes and other structures in our town.”

Earlier today, the District of Logan Lake moved its emergency operations centre to the Thompson-Nicola Regional District offices in Kamloops.