The Fiftynine Creek wildfire prompted the Thompson-Nicola Regional District to issue dozens of additional evacuation orders north of Clinton on Wednesday, with the owners of 182 addresses in Electoral Area E now under orders to leave. In the Village of Clinton, the Stagecoach Café has become a haven of sorts for firefighters to fuel up before and after gruelling shifts. “If we can put our faith into anyone, it’s them,” café co-owner Nicholas Kosovic told CTV News Wednesday night. “I see them come into the café early morning. I see them come back late into the evening. They’ve worked so hard. If anything can be helped, it’s through their hard work.” Nicholas owns the Mexican café along with his mother Maria, and the pair have been putting in 18-hour days – well beyond their standard business hours – to ensure firefighters and displaced locals are well fed. “It makes me very proud,” Maria said of the firefighters coming into the café. “To see them, the way they work. To see such young people managing in such a mature and wonderful way…they are wonderful, wonderful people, and so brave.” Nicholas said those on evacuation alert in Clinton itself have been helping each other set up sprinklers on each others’ homes. “There’s certainly some concern, but people are stepping up to the plate to support their neighbours and that’s the best thing we could be doing as a community and it’s very Clinton,” Nicholas said. The feeling of solidarity will be needed in the days ahead, as the Fiftynine Creek wildfire continues to burn out of control.
