UPDATED: 3:30 p.m.

About 20 members of the BC Wildfire Service are out battling a blaze today east of Merritt.

Fire information officer Nicole Bonnett says a helicopter is also working at the Quilchena Creek fire today.

It’s now listed at 839 hectares, after more precise mapping was done today.

“But I also don’t want people to think that change in fire size is necessarily indicative of the fire behaviour out there,” Bonnett says.

“It is a larger fire but grass fires at this time of year aren’t uncommon. It’s because there’s so much of that surface fuel, grasses and things that died over the winter. And now that the snow is melted off, they’re quite dry, and so they’re easily ignitable.”

The fire was first reported on Sunday. Bonnett says fire investigators were also going to the fire today to try and determine a cause.

Meanwhile, another fire south of Merritt, near the Coldwater River, remains estimated at 50 hectares in size, and is listed as under control. Bonnett did not have an update on that fire, saying BCWS personnel were called yesterday to support the Coldwater Indian Band volunteer fire department.