Soldiers ease burden for B.C. firefighters

Military mopping up at wildfire sites in Okanagan, leaving fire crews free to fight worse blazes elsewhere

Though the fire situation in the Okanagan is seen as stable, dozens of Canadian soldiers are battling blazes in the Valley.

“The role that they (Canadian Armed Forces) are playing is to mop up and control more contained fires in B.C.,” said Ryan Turcott, a fire information officer with the BC Wildfire Service. “The CAF are able to go in and mop up remaining hot spots, which is very helpful to us.”

The federal government has dispatched just over 400 members of the Armed Forces to aid the BC Wildfire Service.

“We are working to co-ordinate very closely with the BC Wildfire Service to tackle more urgent cases and fires of note,” said Maj. Jeff Allen of the Armed Forces.

The military takes over from provincial firefighters, who are then free to tackle more active sites.

The two wildfires of note burning nearby are the Gottfriedsen Mountain fire, a 615-hectare blaze 24 kilometres west of West Kelowna, and the Harris Creek FSR fire, covering 511 hectares 16 kilometres southeast of Lumby. The Wildfire Service says the former is under control while the latter is not.

Across the province, 563 fires were burning, Turcott said, with 16 new ones starting on Tuesday.

The Shovel Lake fire, west of Prince George, is one of the largest, at more than 868 square kilometres, and has a crew of 236 battling it, though thick smoke was the biggest challenge because visibility problems prevented the use of aircraft, Turcott said.

Since the beginning of April, 1,937 fires have burned 629,000 hectares in B.C. Firefighting costs are reported to exceed $282 million thus far.

A long stretch of hot, dry weather hasn’t helped crews fighting the fires.

Most areas of the province can expect “patchy precipitation” before the end of the week.

“Temperatures will start to trend downwards tomorrow,” said Turcott.

But there’s little reason to celebrate the forecast.

“It will take a prolonged period of rain to bring meaningful relief,” Turcott said.

A 14-day state of emergency was declared in B.C. on Aug. 14. Chris Duffy, executive director of Emergency Management BC, was unable to comment on the possibility of extending the emergency conditions.

“We will reassess closer to the end of the period, around the 25th of the month,” he said in a provincewide media teleconference call on Wednesday.

Officials have said roughly 3,000 B.C. residents were under evacuation orders due to wildfires and thousands more on alert as hundreds of blazes char timber and bush in all areas of the province.

Residents of the tiny B.C. community of Lower Post, near the Yukon boundary, were the latest to be forced from their homes on Wednesday.

About 80 people received evacuation notices as the BC Wildfire Service warned a 40-square-kilometre blaze to the south had moved within five kilometres of the village and also threatened the enclave of Skooks Landing.

Duffy encouraged people to follow evacuation orders, including those who are not evacuated but under an alert.

“Commercial accommodation in some communities is stretched to capacity,” said Duffy, in an attempt to dissuade evacuees from delaying their departure.

Many people have considered leaving town to escape the omnipresent smoke, but they would have to travel a long way to find any relief. On Wednesday, the air quality in the Okanagan was rated at a six on the 10-point Air Quality Health Index scale. The Okanagan was one of only seven regions in the province not rated at a 10+.

“We normally have very clear air in B.C., so this smoke can be very stressful for people,” said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. She went on to say that wildfire smoke cannot be compared to longterm pollution in cities such as Beijing and New Delhi, a point of comparison that has been a touchstone for many media outlets.

Normally healthy, active people can experience symptoms including eye irritation, a runny nose, a cough, wheezing or light-headedness, but these symptoms should dissipate with the smoke.

Pregnant women, infants and people with pre-existing health conditions should stay indoors when possible and limit physical activity.

The smoke can also exacerbate pneumonia in the elderly and ear infections in children.

The Canadian Press The beach in Vernon is normally packed with local residents and tourists during the summer, but it was pretty quiet Monday as thick smoke from wildfires in B.C. blanketed the Okanagan. More than 560 wildfires were burning in the province Wednesday.