BC Wildfire Service water bomber/via BCWF

Expect to see some aerial activity to the west of Kamloops through Friday afternoon.

The BC Wildfire Service is conducting some in-air and on the ground training in the Savona area along Sabiston Creek Road.

“A couple of initial attack crews and one of the Simpcw Indigenous response crews are heading out to do some wildfire training this afternoon,” Mikhail Elsay with the Kamloops Fire Center told Radio NL.  “Along with that, they’ve worked in to do some cross-training with our provincial air tanker programs.”

Elsay says the goal is to get their crews prepared for when the fire season in the Kamloops Fire Center begins to become more problematic.

“We have been very lucky with our fire load in the Kamloops Fire Center. We do have all of our initial attack crews are staffed-up and ready to go,” said Elsay. “But that’s also to acknowledge that the northeast part of our province has been burning since the beginning of winter.”

He notes that a number of Kamloops Fire Center crews have been rotating in and out of the northeast BC fire zone.

“A crew tour is generally 14 days out on the line. Then 4 days off,” said Elsay.

Fire Danger Rating in the Kamloops Fire Center as of June 21, 2024/via BC Wildfire Service

He notes the Kamloops Fire Center is able to share those resources with the Northern Fire Center, given the weather thus far this fire season.

“With the seasonal weather pattern we’ve been receiving over the month of June, the rain has sort of kept us in a low to moderate fire danger rating,” said Elsay.

It comes as more sustained, higher temperatures are forecast for the Kamloops area over the weekend and into next week.

So far the fire danger rating for the region remains mostly in the low range, with just a couple of pockets of moderate-to-high danger areas, mostly within the city of Kamloops itself, as well as the north Shuswap.