Crews continue to battle three ‘wildfires of note’ in the Prince George Fire Centre, as dryer than normal conditions are forecasted to persist across B.C.
The largest in the Prince George Fire Centre is still the Chilako fire, west of Finger-Tatuk Provincial Park, discovered on July 1. It is burning an estimated 1,471 hectares.
BC Wildfire Service says control lines have been established and hand-lit burn operations are being conducted to clean up pockets for unburnt fuel and crews had notable success on the fire yesterday (July 6) with burn operations.
Resources fighting this fire include 55 firefighters, 4 helicopters, and 26 pieces of heavy equipment.
The second wildfire of note is the Cutoff Creek fire, just north of Knewstubb Lake and a 123-kilometre drive south of Fraser Lake. Discovered on July 2, the fire has grown from a reported 886.4 hectares to 1,215 hectares.
It is an interface fire, which means it has the potential to involve buildings and forest fuel simultaneously. Crews and equipment are now working to secure the south flank of the fire with aerial support.
An Evacuation Alert has been issued by the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako. This alert spans from approximately 60 km south along Kenney Dam Road to Knewstubb Lake and 6 km west of Kluskus Forest Service Road along the Natalkuz 500 Road to Knewstubb Lake.
BC Wildfire Service says resources fighting this fire include 51 firefighters, three helicopters, and ten pieces of heavy equipment.
The third wildfire of note is the Tentfire Creek wildfire, discovered July 1, near Murray Forest Service Road and southwest of Tumber Ridge, burning at approximately 715 hectares.
Crews will be conducting burnout operations on the north and northeast flank of the fire over the next several days.
Additional resources have been allocated to this fire to support the burnout operations.
BC Wildfire Service says this parallel attack method is used to eliminate the fuel between a containment line and the main body of the fire in a controlled way. This decreases the chance of the fire burning up to the containment line in an uncontrolled way and crossing or spotting over the containment line.
Resources fighting this fire include 24 firefighters, five helicopters, and six pieces of heavy equipment.
All three of these wildfires of note were caused by lightning.
There are currently 39 active fires in the Prince George Fire Centre and 202 active fires across the province with 114 of those starting this week.
BC Wildfire Service also released its seasonal outlook, which states there’s a strong likelihood of warmer and dryer than normal conditions persisting across much of the province.
Burning conditions across much of the province are currently three to four weeks ahead of schedule and more typical of average mid-July or August conditions.
Grass and other surface fuels have been drying quickly, meaning that seasonal “green up” is over for most parts of the province.
The dry fuel conditions, lack of June precipitation, and record-breaking heatwave have also created the necessary environment for very large fire growth.
BC Wildfire Service says long-range signals for near-normal precipitation are confined to the northern third of B.C. so heightened wildfire activity is therefore expected to persist well into July.
Widespread thunderstorms recently delivered more lightning than rain and BC Wildfire Service says delayed lightning starts from dry lightning are anticipated in the coming weeks.
Recent weather and fuel conditions have also made initial attacks challenging, meaning large fires will likely be occurring throughout the province.
The Okanagan and southern Cariboo regions are showing very high hazards particularly as significant rain is required to reduce the hazards however none is forecast in the foreseeable future.
Prince George is also under a special air quality statement as smoke from the Cutoff Creek and Chilako fires are expected to impact areas through central B.C. for the next 24 to 48 hours.
More information on current air quality conditions and wildfire smoke can be found online.
So far this year B.C. has had 689 fires, with roughly 318 occurring the week of June 28.
