The Burns Lake Visitor Information Centre hasn’t seen a significant spike in tourist this year compared with last year. Sheryl Worthing, chief administrative officer at the Village of Burns Lake said, “The numbers are relatively the same.”

Last year visitors who came to visit Burns Lake for June and July was 523 people which is also significant to this year’s 543 tourist visits around same time.

The records show tourists from Germany and United States visited most in Burns Lake.

Worthing said, “The fire situation stopped those tourists from staying in our community. Most of our recreation sites and the mountain bike park were in the alerted or order zones and therefore closed.”

She also said, “During the wildfires 90 per cent of our visitors inquired about road closures, evacuations, and where to go. For three weeks there was no where for our visitors to stay.”

With the wildfires the bike trails, which are a big draw to the community, also shut down Kager Lake campground.

Other campsites such as Ethel Wilson, Augier and Pinkut Lakes also had no camping availability during the wildfires.

The Western Days that were slated for the end of July, which could have been a draw for people to come to Burns Lake was also canceled due to the wildfires.

The Big Pig event also was canceled and in the past this event has had numerous out of town people attending.

The wildfires have impacted regular business operations and tourism around Burns Lake.