Evacuation orders expanded as lightning fuels new wildfires

The Cariboo Regional District expanded evacuation orders Sunday for areas near Canim Lake, Hawkins Lake and the Canim Lake First Nation near 100 Mile House after lightning sparked dozens of new wildfires in the Interior.

The B.C. Wildfire Service said crews stayed overnight Saturday to battle one fire near the east end of Canim Lake, and more resources arrived Sunday. Officials said fire behaviour was described as quiet Sunday morning, and the area received rain overnight.

B.C. Wildfire Service spokesman Ryan Turcot said 28 new fires were sparked in the province between Saturday and Sunday, most of which were from lightning. Turcot said gusty winds caused aggressive growth in the Cariboo region.

A total of 163 fires were burning in B.C. Sunday.

RCMP spokeswoman Dawn Roberts said that in Alexis Creek, where police helped people leave, officers removed items from the RCMP detachment in the community.

On the south shores of Green Lake where an order was issued, Roberts said some people didn’t leave. But she said they changed their minds when buildings started to burn.

The wildfire service said smoke originating from the large wildfires in the Cariboo has drifted north and was visible throughout the Prince George region.

The increase in smoke was attributed to a shift in wind direction that was pushing the smoke from the Cariboo fires into the entire northern part of the province. The largest wildfire in the Prince George Fire Centre was burning east of Lucas Lake about 65 kilometres southwest of Fraser Lake. No communities or structures were threatened by this fire.

In the West Kootenay region, a weekend music festival that was cancelled due to an encroaching wildfire was resurrected.

Organizers of the Shambhala Music Festival said Sunday that damp, cool weather had downgraded the threat of the fire moving close to the Salmo River Ranch property where the event was being held.

They said the decision followed hours of meetings on Sunday morning with the Regional District of Central Kootenay and other local government.

Sunday was the final night for the festival, which was celebrating its 20th anniversary.

The regional district had issued an evacuation alert Saturday after the B.C. Wildfire Service reported

If smoke from these fires causes air quality to deteriorate again, another air quality advisory may be initiated.

that flames had crossed the Salmo River and were heading toward Salmo. In Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley, an air quality advisory caused by smoke from the Interior wildfires was lifted Saturday after almost two weeks.

The advisory was issued Aug. 1 and alerted residents to “fine particulate matter” in the air, which had wafted across the region from wildfires burning throughout B.C.

Changing weather means much of the haze lifted on Saturday, allowing for the air quality advisory to be cancelled.

However, Metro Vancouver said the advisory could be back.

“If smoke from these fires causes air quality to deteriorate again, another air-quality advisory may be initiated,” the agency said in a news release.