As the snow melts in B.C’s Interior, the BC Wildfire Service is warning the public about fires from last year that could re-emerge.

Information officer Forrest Tower says those cases are called “overwintering” fires, when a wildfire has burned underground through the winter.

“Mainly where these spots occur, are going to be well within the fire’s perimeter. So there isn’t much potential for the fire to sort of re-emerge and get larger than it was last year. It’s mainly just those untouched areas within the fire’s perimeter that maybe didn’t burn all the way last year.”

In the Kamloops Fire Centre, Tower says the risk of hot spots are most likely in the Similkameen, at the Snowy Mountain and Cool Creek wildfires which burned mainly in alpine areas near Keremeos. He says the main fires the wildfire services is keeping an eye on are in northern B.C., including the Nadina Lake and Shovel Lake wildfires.

“Those fires, just with the size of them, there may be the potential of having unburned fuel within the fire’s perimeter that may, as we return to warmer temperatures, have the potential of having overwintered,” he says.

“We were having those warming temperatures earlier, we have the potential to have an earlier fire season start  this year. So maintain the usual caution when using fire, and sort of the recreational activities that go along with the snow disappearing.”

The wildfire service asks anyone who spots a new wildfire or a flare-up of a fire to call 1-800-663-5555