ACN = Ash-Creek News. The new Covid numbers are 26 new cases on Saturday, 34 new cases on Sunday and 19 on Monday. There is an outbreak watch in regards to Kerle Lake in Alberta. If you are person who has worked at Kerle Lake over the last 14 days please self isolate for the next 14 days. Quick shout out to News Brunswick who has had zero cases over the last six days, congratulations.

Tonight there will be a virtual town hall with the Ashcroft Village Office, this will be live on our Facebook page. this meeting is about the five year financial plan for Ashcroft so have your say.

An investigation into the 2017 Elephant Hill wildfire has determined smoking materials to be the most likely cause, according to the BC Wildfire Service.

The wildfire started on July 6, 2017, about 2.5 kilometres southeast of Ashcroft. It eventually burned 191,865 hectares in B.C.’s south-central Interior region, including parts of both the Kamloops Fire Centre and Cariboo Fire Centre. It destroyed 45 homes in Boston Flats, 40 in Loon Lake and 33 in the Pressy Lake area among others. In total, 130 homes were lost to the fire in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District.

“The BC Wildfire Service’s fire origin and cause specialists investigated the Elephant Hill wildfire, and their report indicated that the most likely cause of the Elephant Hill wildfire was smoking or smoking materials. The ‘smoking materials’ classification includes matches, cigars, pipe tobacco, cigarettes and/or marijuana,” according to a release by the BC Wildfire Service.

“The BC Wildfire Service’s fire origin and cause specialists investigated the Elephant Hill wildfire, and their report indicated that the most likely cause of the Elephant Hill wildfire was smoking or smoking materials. The ‘smoking materials’ classification includes matches, cigars, pipe tobacco, cigarettes and/or marijuana,” according to a release by the BC Wildfire Service.

Lightning, an escaped campfire, category 2 to 3 burning or Resource Open Fire Activity, arson, equipment use, railroads, vehicles and electrical transmission/a utility line were all eliminated as potential causes.

The BC Wildfire Service’s origin and cause report was completed in fall 2017 but part of a larger RCMP investigation into the wildfire. The BC Wildfire Service is sharing it now because the RCMP investigation recently concluded.

The Village of Cache Creek has lifted the stage 4 water restrictions. But remember that your lawn can only absorb so much so lets keep the reservoir full as much as we can.

Prime Minister Trudeau has banned certain types of assault rifles. The controversy comes in where he has made this decision and put it into action without putting a motion through Parliament, which he is allowed to do based of certain rules and powers that the Prime Minister has.

The Ashcroft Terminal is making a working group to try and come up with alternative ways to have the public get to the local slough. The current access has been cut off due to liability issues and people are not to happy. This working group will bring together several people from the community to try and come up with a solution.