If you notice a bit of haze over Prince George today, don’t blame the pulp mills
That’s forest fire smoke.
Although the Prince George Fire District (PGFD) has no wildfires of note and fire activity is still relatively quiet across the entire northern half of British Columbia, large blazes in the Northwest Territories and northern Alberta are producing copious amounts of smoke that has now started to move into our province.
The smoke reached the Prince George airshed early Tuesday morning and is expected to remain in place most of the day, according to the Smoke Forecast website firesmoke.ca. The good news is the particulate matter in the smoke over the city is on the lowest end of the scale (less than 10 parts per million) and is not expected to cause health issues.
The PGFD covers an area of 31.8 million hectares of central and northeast B.C. that’s 10 times the size of Vancouver Island.
Crews are monitoring a few spot fires southwest of Mackenzie in the Burnt River area. All are estimated to be less than one hectare in size. They were first reported on Saturday after lightning strikes, with one believed to be human-caused.
The Hasler Flats fire 30 km southwest of Chetwynd that now covers 150 ha and is still burning out of control but is no longer considered a fire of note. A 20 ha fire at the southwest end of Trembleur Lake northwest of Fort St. James remains out of control but firefighters are on the scene to limit its spread.
“All those fires are quite remote and there’s not a lot of activity so they’re just being watched, said PGFS fire information officer Hannah Harris. “Right now they’re not presenting much activity and they’re not threatening anything at this time.”
West of Prince George, between Houston and Kitimat, the Morice River fire, the Regional District of Bulkley Valley issued an evacuation alert on Monday to residents is the surrounding area. That lightning-caused fire covers an area estimated at five ha. Seventeen firefighters and one helicopter on the scene made significant progress creating fire guards and the fire is being held within an area cleared by heavy equipment.
“Today the firefighters are working on mop-up, so they have the hose installed around the perimeter of the fire and they’re soaking the blackened edge of the fire and working in,” said Northwest Fire District fire information officer Casda Thomas.
“As the moment winds are calm and that’s expected to remain today. We are expecting some more gusty winds on Thursday, however, we’re making very good progress on this fire.”
Northwest has had no wildfires of note this fire season and Thomas says quick responses have been key in keeping that record intact.
“We have had some wildfires that required expanded attacks but overall our initial attack crews have had really good success putting out the majority of fires before they’ve gotten large enough to require sustained action,” said Thomas.
“We have had a week of hot and dry weather and that’s expected to continue for a couple days and then our forecasters are saying we might see thunderstorms and gusty winds on Thursday and when we have lightning activity there’s a potential for those fires to hold over and not show themselves until a few days later, so it’s important for folks to report any smoke or fire activity they see.”
Call 1-800-663-5555 if you spot a wildfire.
There are currently five wildfires of note, one on the Kamloops Fire District, and four in Southeast.
The Keremeos Creek fire 21 km southwest of Penticton, is the largest in the province at 7,042 ha. It’s been burning since July 24 and the cause is still under investigation.
The Briggs Creek fire 11.5 km west of Kaslo covers an area of 2,160 ha and was started by lightning Aug. 1. The Connell Ridge fire 23 km southwest of Cranbrook is at 1,707 ha and is being held. It also was reported Aug. 1, caused by lightning. The Mount Docking fire 27 km east of Radium Hot Springs covers 1,330 ha. It’s been burning since July 30 and was also caused by lighting. The 1,770 ha Wessel Creek fire in the Flathead Valley near Fernie was reported Aug. 4 after a lighting strike.
So far this year the province has had 1,069 wildfires, of which 754 (69.1 per cent) were caused by lightning, 265 (24.3 per cent) were person caused and 72 (6.6 per cent) were of unknown origin.
