Hot weather continues to push fire risk up across BC

NANAIMO (NEWS 1130) – Crews are currently dealing with about 460 active wildfires across the province.

The BC Wildfire Service says the areas of concern right now are the Northwest and Kamloops fire centres.

The Alkali Lake fire is one of the fires of note in BC’s northwest. It’s forced the evacuation of Telegraph Creek.

“That one’s burning within the Cassiar fire zone,” explains Fire Information Officer Kyla Fraser. “As of [Monday] at around noon, it was 800 hectares in size, so we’ve got fire fighters as well as helicopters, heavy equipment working on that fire.”

In that region, at least eight large fires have forced more evacuations, as well as alerts.

“The last order I signed, the order itself had about somewhere in the 15-to-20 range houses,” Bulkley-Nechako Regional District Chair Bill Miller says. “The alert areas, of course, covered a little, probably double that.”

He understands that provincial resources are quite stretched. Miller says his region is one of the most affected at the moment.

“We really haven’t had a lot of people that have been removed, it’s been minor to this point,” Miller adds. “People that are on alert, that’s much more on the Shovel Lake fire, we had upwards of 43 residences and substantial livestock numbers and things like that. But they are on alert and people here have been through this stuff before. They have become much better at their level of preparedness, and I know certainly from our side we’ve become quite a bit more efficient too.”

Meantime in the Kamloops Fire Centre, the Snowy Mountain fire south of Keremeos and close to the US border is only 40 per cent contained and now covers approximately 12,000 hectares.

“[We’re] working together with US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, as well as our own crews, just given the fire’s proximity to the border,” Fraser says.

Nanaimo Lakes Fire

A campground on Vancouver Island is the latest place to be evacuated because of a 131-hectare wildfire near Nanaimo.

Most resources have been dedicated to 21 so-called wildfires of note, including the Nanaimo Lakes fire still burning out of control.

“[The BC Coastal Fire Service] has about 50 firefighters on scene along with heavy quipment, six helicopters in support,” Regional District Chair Bill Veenhof tells NEWS 1130. “We evacuated essentially a campground that was run by TimberWest.”

He cites winds as a concern, but adds he’s hopeful they will die down. Another 77 homes remain under an evacuation alert.

“If you’re under the evacuation alert, people should get their precious things together… clothes, medicines, have a plan for their pets.”

Veenhof is also asking those who are forced to leave their homes to only take one car, if possible.

Looking ahead

With temperatures expected to hit the high thirties in parts of the province this week, the BC Wildfire Service is gearing up for more possible activity.

“It seems like we’ve gotten through the worst of that lightning activity, so not as many lightning starts happening,” Fraser says. “We saw 100 start just in the last week, but we are moving back into another hot and dry weather pattern, so we’re expecting that to both increase the fire danger rating and affect some of the fires we have burning right now.”

She expects to see increased activity on some of the blazes currently burning. While weather has played a large role in combatting fires, Fraser adds resources have been stretched.

Crews have been called in from out-of-province, including from as far as New Zealand, Australia, and Mexico to help give local teams a bit of a break.

More than 2,200 personnel are working to fight wildfires across the province.

Campfire bans

More proof some people are not getting the message about the fire risk around BC; more than $14,000 in fines were handed out to people not obeying campfire bans this past long weekend.

According to Simon Gravel with the BC Conservation Officer Service, most of them were handed out in the Sea to Sky region.

“It’s a real risk and some people don’t take that seriously and that’s what the enforcement’s for and we believe the fine should help those people understand and be a deterrent for people to not have a fire,” he says.

Gravel adds the fine for an illegal fire is more than $1,000.

 

“We issued about 13 fines today of $1,150 for some people that did have a fire or were using a fire against the restriction.”

 

With files from Martin MacMahon

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today