Essentials
Who to call when things go wrong
For a life-threatening emergency, call 9-1-1 and stop reading. For everything else, the help is out there but scattered. You need the pass report, the fire map, the outage line, the nurse line, and whoever sends evacuation alerts for your town. This page puts them in one place. It has the key websites and every province-wide phone number, and I checked each one against its own site. Write your local numbers on the fridge sheet in pen.
The roads
Road conditions, closures and webcams for every highway in BC. In winter, check it before you drive Kootenay Pass, the Paulson, or Rogers Pass. Kootenay Pass most of all.
Fires, floods and evacuation alerts
Your regional district sends out evacuation alerts, and its area doesn't match town lines. Trail is a city, but its alerts come from the Kootenay Boundary district. Find yours below and sign up before smoke season starts.
The province's official updates during floods, fires and evacuations. Every evacuation order or alert shows up here.
Current wildfires, fire danger ratings, and burning restrictions.
Regional District of Central Kootenay
Runs emergency planning and evacuation alerts for most of the West and Central Kootenay. Find the emergency alerts on their site and sign up.
Regional District of East Kootenay
Runs emergency planning and evacuation alerts for the East Kootenay, the Elk Valley and the Columbia Valley. Sign up for their emergency alerts on their site.
Regional District of Kootenay Boundary
Runs emergency planning and evacuation alerts for Greater Trail and the Boundary. Sign up for their emergency alerts on their site.
Save this page before you need it.
Someone to talk to, any hour
For anyone thinking about suicide, or worried about someone who is. Free, any hour, call or text.
checked at 988.ca
310 Mental Health Support
310-6789Emotional support and mental health information in BC. No area code needed.
checked at gov.bc.ca
For kids, teens and young adults. Nobody is too young to call about anything.
checked at kidshelpphone.ca
VictimLinkBC
1-800-563-0808Confidential help for victims of crime, family violence and abuse.
checked at gov.bc.ca
Health
A nurse on the phone, any hour of any day, for free. Call when you're worried but it isn't an emergency.
BC Drug and Poison Information Centre
Poison and overdose advice, day or night, at 1-800-567-8911.
Runs every public hospital and health centre in the region. Check walk-in wait times, find a page for each hospital and clinic, and read public health notices.
Hospitals and health centres on the List
See it, smell it, report it
The BC Wildfire Service line. If you see smoke on a hillside, call.
checked at emergencyinfobc.gov.bc.ca
Gas leak or gas smell
1-800-663-9911FortisBC's 24-hour gas emergency line. Leave the building first, then call.
checked at fortisbc.com
Poison or a bad reaction
1-800-567-8911The BC poison centre, day or night. Have the container in your hand when you call.
checked at dpic.org
Spill on land or water
1-800-663-3456The provincial line for spills of fuel, chemicals, or anything reaching a creek.
checked at gov.bc.ca
Power and gas outages
Covers most of the East Kootenay and much of the rural West Kootenay.
Covers much of the West Kootenay and southern Interior. It also runs the gas lines across the region.
Nelson makes and sells its own power. The city's website has its outage line.
Grand Forks also runs its own electrical utility.
Your power bill shows which one is yours, and it's the only sure answer. The areas above are rough.
The RCMP, detachment by detachment
For a crime in progress, call 9-1-1. For anything else, call your detachment's non-emergency line. These are the detachments on the List.
After the emergency
These lines help with the day after, for residents and for the people who hire them.
ICBC claims
1-800-910-4222Report a crash and start the claim, any hour.
checked at icbc.com
WorkSafeBC, unsafe work or incidents
1-888-621-7233Report unsafe work or a workplace incident. For workers and employers alike.
checked at worksafebc.com
WorkSafeBC claims
1-888-967-5377Start or ask about a claim after a workplace injury.
checked at worksafebc.com
Everyday help
A free, private directory of community and social services, like housing help, food banks, counselling and seniors' support. Dial 2-1-1 or search online.
How this page is kept
I checked every link and number here against its own live site on 24 AUG 2026. I link to each site's front page on purpose. While building this page, I found four deeper links that looked right but were already dead. Every front page still worked. The only numbers here are province-wide lines, and each one shows the page I checked it against. Local numbers change on other people's websites, so I leave them off this one. If anything here has moved, tell me and I'll fix it.
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