Yesterday’s rain in the Kamloops area helped BC Wildfire crews fighting the massive Sparks Lake fire, northwest of the city.

Fire Information Officer, Greg Jonuk tells NL News a total of 3 mm of rain fell on the fire yesterday which calmed conditions in the afternoon.

“There was lightning in the area and actually the lightning did slow down the operations with the helicopters,” he said. “Some of those operations had to be stopped yesterday because of the lighting but the rain that came down was good enough that it did actually affect fire conditions and that was good to see.”

Jonuk says crews will continue working to build fire guards, particularly around the Southwest part of the fire, near the Skeetchestn Indian Band.

“We haven’t had significant growth over the last couple of days. The big concern is in the southwest component of the fire. the winds have been variable in that area which makes it tricky for firefighters,” he added.

“We’re trying to keep the fire on the eastern component of the Deadman drainage. There’s also another guard on the far east component of that part of the fire and in the southwest, there is a bit of a peninsula that is dipping down, so we’re trying to control it on both sides.”

The Sparks Lake fire is stilling burning out of control and its still estimated to be about 39,000 hectares in size. There are 122 firefighters on scene today along with 15 helicopters and 47 pieces of heavy equipment.

Another six Structure Protection Unit (SPU) crews, ten Skeetchestn Fire Department firefighters, four SPU trailers, and five water tenders with operators are also on site, according to the BC Wildfire Service.

In all, there are evacuation orders in place for 170 properties in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District and evacuation alerts in place for another 704 properties.

There is also an evacuation order for some residents of the Skeetchestn Indian Band, which was put into place on July 2.

(Photo via BC Wildfire Service)