Report from Nuk Tessli

Just received from Chris Czajkowski at Nuk Tessli:

We have been told we are in no danger so I guess will stay put until they say I have to go. At the moment there are six of us here - three paying guests fly out tomorrow on schedule, smoke permitting, and two friends and I will see what happens. We are now the only people in the whole Charlotte Alplands. Today the smoke was not too bad and the guests and I hiked to the top of the ridge closest to the fire. We saw no fire clouds beyond the next ridge - only a pall of smoke - and heard no activity on the Atnarko fire at all, although very distant helicopters indicated that work was going on further north. As we came down, the wind changed and the smoke thickened at once - visibility will have to improve if the clients fly out by plane.

My old cabin on the Turner homestead has presumably gone although that is no great loss - it's destiny was to rot into the forest. John's loss is of course devastating as that is his life - as this place is mine. Fire insurance is impossible here. I have no capital and could never start again if this went. .

However I feel safe enough at the moment; my main immediate concern is loss of business . . . A good deluge would work wonders. I can't see enough of the sky to see what the weather is doing.

Chris Czajkowski at Nuk Tessli

• 2009: Wildfire Threatens Nuk Tessli