Firefighting options as varied as fires themselves: expert

There may be several hundred different wildfires in British Columbia — and each has unique characteristics.

A fire that’s burning in the tops of trees, for example, is basically unstoppable, said Mike Flannigan, a professor at the University of Alberta who researches fires.

A fire smouldering in the ground can burn for months, even years. A fire might just be left to burn, if it’s in an especially remote area or is in particularly difficult terrain, while others are subject to immediate, attacks to try to shut them down.

The B.C. Wildfire Service is, as of Monday, fighting 550 fires across B.C.; smoke from these blazes has blanketed much of the west for the past week. Fifty-four of them are fires “of note,” the province said, meaning they warrant particular concern.

Among those fires, there’s a huge variety in what can happen and how they burn. British Columbia has “a landscape that’s full of contiguous fuel,” said Robert Gray, a fire ecologist in Chilliwack, B.C.

When a fire goes through a major growth spurt, Gray said, it’s usually because of a handful of windy days.

Fires can go back and forth between a wind-drive and a convection-style fire, Flannigan said, based on the available fuel and weather patterns.

Windy weather last week, for example, raised concerns that the Shovel Lake fire — the largest blaze at roughly 850 square kilometres, less than 10 kilometres from the village of Fraser Lake — was going to expand even more rapidly.

For many of the largest or most aggressive fires, the goal isn’t really to put them out: it’s to direct them or chip away at them.

Another tactic for fighting huge, fast-burning fires is what’s called a back burn, basically, where a fire is lit in front of the wildfire. It then burns up all the fuel, in hopes that the big, out-of-control fire dies out when it runs out of flammable material. That tactic’s been used fighting the Shovel Lake fire.

“When you see them in action, being used for a burn-off on a widescale operation, it’s pretty impressive,” Allen said.

PHOTOS: DARRYL DYCK/THE CANADIAN PRESS Cattle roam on a ranch under a smoky sky near Fort St. James, B.C. on Friday.

A tanker drops fire retardant while battling the Shovel Lake wildfire near Fraser Lake, B.C. late last week.

Monica Walther walks down the front steps of her home last week as the Shovel Lake wildfire burns in the distance.