BC Wildfire Service crews say planned ignition work in the Lac Le Jeune area will continue this afternoon, if weather conditions are favourable.

Information Officer, Forrest Tower, says about 40 per cent of the work in the southwest corner of the Ross Moore Lake fire was completed yesterday before conditions worsened.

He says that southwest corner is the primary focus for aerial and ground crews over the next few days, as it is the last piece of uncontained line across the fire perimeter.

While it could get windy this afternoon, he notes crews hope to be done before the end of Thursday when a dry cold front is expected to lead to very strong and gusting winds across much of the province, leading to some “anticipated extreme fire behaviour.”

“If its not done by then, I would anticipate that there would be several days where we just wouldn’t be able to, given the very high winds that are being forecast, “Tower told Radio NL. “We’d still be obviously be continuing to work on that corner, just not doing a large scale planned ignition.”

I can confirm, Thursday’s dry cold front (no precip, some lightning) will generate very strong & gusty winds across much of the province, shifting from SW to NW with the front’s passage. This is what we call a “watch out day” with anticipated extreme fire behaviour. #BCwildfire pic.twitter.com/gnHzZDUoMg

— Matt MacDonald (@meteo_matt) August 15, 2023

Tower says people in the surrounding areas may see smoke today as well, though much of the fire perimeter is in the mop-up and patrol phases.

Crews are using direct attack to extinguish the northeast flank of the fire, with mop up work on the northwest flank. Hand ignition and mop up work is also taking place in the southeast corner of the fire.

Tower says the BC Wildfire Service expects to use a mix of aerial and hand ignitions in the southwest corner of the power, with mop up of the perimeter to follow.

“On August 11, crews completed the guard between Area 1 and Area 2 for a possible planned ignition,” the Wildfire Service added. “The completion of this guard minimizes the potential of having to conduct the larger-scale ignition operation in Area 1.”

On Monday, Tower told Radio NL that “favourable” conditions would be winds that blow the 72.5 square kilometre fire back onto itself.

“If we don’t see any favourable conditions develop then alternate strategies will obviously be used to get containment in that corner but this is the fastest and safest way to [achieve containment],” he added.

Tower also noted that if all of the planned ignition work goes ahead, it won’t mean the fire is classified as being held.

“But its much more closer to 100 per cent containment,” he said.

You’ll find the latest information on the Ross Moore Lake fire here.