Nk’Mip Creek fire at 20,000 ha amid more ‘benign’ conditions
Firefighters working on a pair of major blazes in the South Okanagan are getting some welcome relief from Mother Nature in the form of rain and cooler temperatures.
Those conditions resulted in “benign fire behaviour” throughout the region on Monday, the BC Wildfire Services stated in an update Tuesday.
Conditions also allowed for a new aerial survey of the Nk’Mip Creek fire near Osoyoos, which is now pegged at 20,000 hectares.
There were 219 firefighters – including 96 Mexicans – on site Tuesday, along with 37 pieces of heavy equipment and seven helicopters.
“Using this window (of good weather), new containment lines have been identified and the machine building of guards in these locations has commenced,” the BCWS update stated.
An off-shoot on the east flank of the fire that jumped a guard Sunday and made a beeline for the Mount Baldy Ski Resort has also settled down and remains about 2 1/2 kilometres west of the village.
“With cooler temperatures and low winds in coming days, we will be continuing the building of guards in the north and northeast as well as significant mopping up in the south, east and west. Planned ignitions may occur in the coming days if conditions allow to burn from guards towards the fire,” noted the update, which was issued by an Australian incident management team assigned to the Okanagan complex of fires.
The news is even better for the Thomas Creek fire near Okanagan Falls
“The Thomas creek fire has continued to show extremely benign fire behaviour and any burning areas are within containment lines and crews continue to mop up edges that have burnt to the guard and patrol areas in modified response,” the BCWS sad in a separate update.
There were 77 firefighters – including 62 members of the Canadian Armed Forces – on site Tuesday, plus 19 pieces of heavy equipment and four helicopters.
The fire is still pegged at 11,800 hectares, unchanged from last week.