The BC Wildfire Service says site conditions and weather are favourable for a large-scale planned burn on the northeast corner of the White Rock Lake Fire today.

It says it will be a low intensity burn that will cover about 3,000 hectares between Six Mile Creek and Irish Creek Road, one which had to be delayed a few times last week because conditions were not favourable.

Operations Chief Andre Chalabi says without these planned burns, the fire could spread into area with lots of fuel with the potential to impact Highway 97 and the surrounding areas.

“There will be some patchwork, and a lot of surface fire but also some tree mortality,” he said. “At the end of the day, I’m looking for patchwork and just reducing essentially the ground fuels in order to meet our objective. Our objective is just to stop fire from growing and spreading in weather and wind events.”

“This northeast flank poses some interface threats to the communities below on Highway 97 and the Okanagan Band plus the potential impacts to transportation corridors and infrastructure in the area.”

The wildfire service says crews could begin their work as early as 9:30 a.m., with an update expected later this evening.