Fire crews continue to battle two massive wildfires

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The wildfire situation in the province is under control thanks to the recent cool, wet weather but we’re not out of the woods just yet.  There are still two massive blazes crews are trying to contain.

The Chelaslie River Fire has been burning since early July and it’s about 133,000 hectares in size and the Mount McCallister fire just west of Chetwynd is roughly 26,000 hectares.

No homes are in danger and Fire Information Officer Dustin Eno with the Wildfire Management Branch says all of out-of-province personnel have gone home.  “We’ve managed to reduce the activity far enough that we’re just making due with BC resources.  And as we start to see those specific systems come through with a lot more moisture, we see a decrease in fire activity.”

So far this year there have been more than 1,400 wildfires and just less than half were sparked by people, something Eno hopes changes in the future.

“At this time of year we see a lot of human-caused fires and so we’re reminding people to always take care, even if the forests look like they’re wet, you can still start a forest fire.  Any human-caused fire is preventable and is, therefore, a concern to us especially if it takes resources away from lightning-caused fires that are completely unpreventable.”

There are no evacuation orders or alerts in place and no campfire bans either.  “But we are likely to see a few more fires in October, they’re just less likely to become large and unmanageable,” adds Eno.

So far, BC has spent nearly $300 million fighting wildfires, burning through the initial $63 million budget.