There have been at least 15 new wildfire starts across the province in the last 24 hours including three fires in the Clearwater Wells Gray Provincial Park country.

Fire Information Officer Nicole Bonnett says all the fires are so far small with the first fire in Wells Gray Provincial Park itself.

“The east of Clearwater/Valley Road fire is approximately 53 kilometres north of Clearwater. We have three personnel en route at this time but not currently on site yet. There is also an air tanker request in on the fire.”

Bonnett says the second blaze is 15 kilometres north of Avola.

“There are three personnel en route as well but they haven’t reached the site at this time.”

She says the third reported fire is 15 kilometres northeast of Clearwater.

“A bird dog flew overhead and found nothing out there at this point in time. So we will have to wait and see if additional reports come in.”

Two more small wildfires have also popped up between Monte Creek and Chase.

Bonnett says the weather is concerning with lightning forecast for the Kamloops, Vernon, and Penticton areas.

She says crews are ready should the lightning spark more wildfires.

“With lightning it is always hard to predict where the lightning is going to touch down. It will be one of those wait and see where the fires pop up if they do pop up at all.”

Bonnett says as the temperatures rise so is the fire risk with moderate to high risks across the Kamloops, Vernon, and Penticton zones.

She says there are pockets of extreme risk areas in the Merritt and Lillooet zones.