Crews have now been able to contain a wildfire which broke out on the northwest outskirts of Kamloops over the weekend.
The fire to the west of the Tranquille River at Cooney Bay started on Saturday and managed to grow to about 6 hectares — at one point jumping the train tracks — before crews were able to contain it.
“We still have some deep rooted heat, ash and some burning, more toward the center where it was really intense fire,” said Kamloops Fire Rescue Chief Ken Uzeloc. “The perimeters are all out.”
Uzeloc says crews are mopping up hot spots within the fire’s perimeter.
“We’re going to have a crew out there for the rest of the afternoon. They’re just going to focus on that real hot area, break up some of that, and wet it down and get that cooler, to the point where we’re comfortable leaving that just on its own.”
Uzeloc says the blaze is a reminder of the lingering drought we’re still living in.
“We were lucky this weekend that BC Wildfire had resources available. They managed to get some air resources to help us,” noted Uzeloc. “But as we see, there’s already some wildfires moving across the province.”
Uzeloc is unable to say at this point if it was a campfire which sparked the blaze, but does say it was most likely human-caused.
He notes open burning within Kamloops city limits — which the Cooney Bay area falls into — is not permitted.
“There is no campfires, cooking fires, outdoor fires, backyard fires involving natural wood,” noted Uzeloc. “Things you can use — propane, natural gas, cooking materials or little propane fire pit in your back yard [are allowed], but nothing that actually burns wood. That is because of the embers that come off of that. We know that’s how a lot of wildfires spread so much.”