Red Creek wildfire threatening oil and gas camps
Posted July 9, 2014 2:04 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
PEACE RIVER (NEWS1130) – The Red Deer Creek wildfire is moving closer to a pair of evacuated oil and gas camps.
Hot, dry conditions are making it difficult for crews to battle the 3,100-hectare blaze, which is now 600 metres away from the camps.
Provincial Fire Information Officer Jill Kelsh says heavy smoke stunted aerial attacks this morning. “[Smoke] definitely can make things harder. At this point we’re just working our ground crews on the west side of the fire and once it’s safe to get helicopters up in the air, we’ll do that.”
Crews from across the province have now been called in to help.
“The fire size has doubled since yesterday as well as our resources. We have requested more and we do expect to have more moving up later today or tomorrow. There are currently 70 personnel on site and by the end of today we will have over 100 fire fighters on site as well as our type-1 incident management team, five helicopters and heavy equipment,” she explains.
Around 200 people were evacuated from the oil and gas camps but Kelsh says nearby communities like Tumbler Ridge are being threatened. “There are no concerns at this time. It’s still 60 kilometres north and we don’t expect the fire to move anywhere near Tumbler Ridge.”
Structural protection units have been put in place as crews try and stop the fire from engulfing the camps.
