The Sparks Lake fire – the largest in the province – is being held as of Thursday morning.

Fire Information Officer, Greg Jonuk, says that means with current resources, the fire is not likely to spread beyond the existing boundaries under forecasted conditions.

He tells NL News crews are focusing on the northeast flank of the fire after some excellent progress on the northwest flank.

“As a result of that progress in the northwest as well in the northeast section where there was an excursion last week, our incident commander believed that it is safe to change the status to Being Held,” he said.

“We’re moving our resources from the northwest to the northeast. There’s still a little bit of demobilization of structural protection gear that is required on the northwest flank, but that should be wrapping up very shortly and those folks will be transferred over to that other area.”

Crews are addressing hot spots near unguarded structures in the Tuleric Lake and are also finalizing work to find and extinguish hot spots between Tuleric and Vidette Lakes, an update from the Wildfire Service said.

“Generally, crews are strengthening guards with hose lays and demobilizing structural protection around cabins where it is no longer required,” Jonuk said.

The massive 890 square kilometre Sparks Lake Fire is located about 15 kilometres north of Kamloops Lake. It has been burning for about two months after it was discovered on June 28.

“Nearby communities may still see smoke within the fire perimeter over the next few weeks, and that is quite common,” Jonuk added. “However, if that smoke arises from green unburned fuel outside the fire perimeter, it is a different story.”

“So if it is inside, not to worry, we’re on it, but if its outside, that is something that should be reported.”

As of this morning, there were 79 firefighters, 12 pieces of heavy equipment, 43 Support personnel, and one helicopter assigned to the Sparks Lake fire. There are two other helicopters and 18 structure protection crews being shared within the Sparks Lake Fire complex.

Thursday morning, the Thompson-Nicola Regional District has lifted evacuation alerts for 27 properties in the Deadman Vidette and Bonaparte Lake areas. An evacuation order for 19 properties in the Bonaparte Lake area was also downgraded to an alert.

For the latest on evacuation orders and alerts in the TNRD, go here.