Shovel Lake fire near Prince George ‘highest concern’, says B.C. Wildfire Service

KAMLOOPS (NEWS 1130) – It’s going to be yet another busy weekend for fire crews around the province.

The highest area of concern centres around Prince George, but Fire Information Officer Kyla Fraser says wildfires burning around the province have fire crews busy in all six regions.

Fraser says most of their resources have been dedicated to central B.C. as a number fires have prompted evacuation alerts.

“That corridor between Smithers and Prince George is our highest area of concern right now, just given the size and intensity of the fires in the area as well as the human impact in terms of all the evacuation alerts and orders.”

That blaze, the Shovel Lake fire, is the largest at 785 square kilometres–seven times the size of Vancouver. Fraser says there’s a lot of smoke in the area, and while a clearing pattern might be on the horizon, the area will likely be hazy for a few days yet.

There are currently 560 fires burning around B.C., a slight drop in numbers compared to last week. Some progress has been made, but Fraser says fire crews are dealing with challenging conditions like hot, dry weather.

“We did see some increased fire behaviour due to the weather conditions. It looks like as we head into this week we’re kind of heading into a more static, dry pattern. No rain in the forecast, either, and that’s what we really could use right now.”

According to the BC Wildfire Service, there are more than 3,500 personnel working to get the wildfires under control.

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