Some “good progress” was made on the wildfire front over the weekend.
Provincial Fire Information Officer Kyla Fraser says there are about 544 wildfires burning across the province, a slight decrease from last week, with 54 of those fires considered of note.
She says the Northwest Fire Centre still is still an area of concern.
“Shovel Lake being the largest of the fires in that area, and in B.C. It is currently estimated at about 85,000 hectares in size. They were experiencing some stronger winds in that area earlier this week, which was certainly increasing the fire behaviour, but it appears that has calmed down a little bit.”
Fraser says there was a spike in wildfire activity in the Southeast Wildfire Centre.
“One of the more notable ones right now is the Meachen Creek wildfire. That one caused an evacuation alert for the City of Kimberly. It is currently estimated at just under 7,000 hectares in size. Fortunately not much change on that fire yesterday. Still burning but it hasn’t entered into the valley yet.”
Fraser says the smoke was so bad this weekend the air fleet was grounded.Fraser says the smoke was so bad this weekend the air fleet was grounded.
“We do want to make sure that our pilots are flying in safe conditions. That has been a bit of challenge over the weekend. Low visibility due to smoke has been a challenge in terms of detection as well in discovering new wildfires.”
She says there is still no significant rain in the forecast.
Headway also made in the Cariboo Fire Centre, Fire Information Officer Shannon Street…
“So we haven’t had anything new. Currently there are four fires that have evacuation orders on them in the Cariboo Fire Centre and four fires that have evacuation alerts on them.”
Near Kamloops the 633 hectare Gottfriedsen Mountain wildfire near the Okanagan Connector is now under control with related evacuation alerts rescinded.
(photo credit: B.C Wildfire Service)