Crew fighting B.C. wildfire accidentally sparks blaze

VANCOUVER — A spokesman for B.C.’s wildfire service says crews accidentally sparked a blaze while burning off fuel in order to contain one of many fires raging across the province’s Interior.

Kevin Skrepnek said Wednesday that members ignited a nearby hillside as part of a controlled burn Tuesday against the 840-square-kilometre Elephant Hill fire, about 80 kilometres west of Kamloops.

Skrepnek said conditions appeared ideal until the winds shifted dramatically, blowing them west across Highway 97.

He said he doesn’t know the exact size of the unintentional blaze, but firefighters were still working to put it out as of Wednesday afternoon.

Skrepnek said the controlled burn was successful in depriving the main fire of fuel.

He said controlled burns are an essential and effective tool for fighting wildfires.

About 500 of the 3,300 people working for the B.C. Wildfire Service have been assigned to the Elephant Hill blaze, in addition to 22 helicopters and 66 pieces of heavy machinery.

Meanwhile, a new evacuation order was issued Wednesday for areas south and west of Clinton.

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District said a rapidly moving wildfire continues to threaten properties in the area and has told affected residents to head to Kamloops and register with the Red Cross. An estimated 120 homes are covered by the latest order in an area that has already seen at least four evacuation orders since late last week.

Also on Wednesday evening, the Cariboo Regional District expanded an evacuation order for the Kluskus, Blackwater and Clisbako Nazko area, about 100 kilometres west of Quesnel.

The district also said residents can now return to portions of the Wildwood area near Williams Lake, with a caution that wildfire activity continues in the area, air quality remains poor, and the area is still on evacuation alert.

There were 132 fires burning across B.C. as of Wednesday, 10 of which had appeared since Tuesday. More than 850 fires have consumed 4,730 square kilometres of land since April 1, when the fire season officially began.

Conditions were expected to worsen in the coming days as southern B.C. faces a heat wave.

Robert Turner of Emergency Management B.C. said more than 35,000 evacuees had registered as of Wednesday, including 10,000 in Prince George, more than 9,000 in Kamloops and about 5,000 in southwestern B.C.

Meanwhile, the highway that winds through Kootenay National Park has been closed indefinitely as wildfire smoke makes for dangerous driving conditions.

Parks Canada said Wednesday that Highway 93 has been closed from Castle Junction on the Trans-Canada Highway to the town of Radium Hot Springs, about 100 kilometres south.

Smoke from the fires has prompted expanded air-quality advisories for most of the southern part of the province.

The advisory of poor air quality and reduced visibility covers an area stretching from the Cariboo to the Alberta-B.C. border and all the way to eastern Vancouver Island.

As in the capital region, shifting winds from the Interior brought a smoky haze to Metro Vancouver on Tuesday and the regional district said the problem might persist for several days.

The air-quality problem is at its worst in the Fraser Valley, Kamloops, Squamish, Whistler and Williams Lake.