Waterton on alert
Encroaching B.C. fire results in voluntary evacuation alert for national park
Fire crews from across Canada are battling to keep a major fire burning mostly in B.C. from spreading into Waterton Lakes National Park. As the fire continues to expand, a voluntary evacuation alert for the entire park was issued late Tuesday.
The voluntary evacuation order covers not only the National Park, but the community of Waterton, which has a population of about 100 people. The emergency alert notes that "cottagers, campers and visitors are encouraged to leave the area."
While there is no immediate threat, the alert was issued so crews could be ready for a forecasted change in weather over the next couple of days.
Some spot fires have flared up at the northwestern boundary near Sage Pass, affecting up to one hectare of land. Two helicopters bucketed water on the fires to suppress them on Monday.
Parks Canada officials first spotted the Kenow Fire from the air on Aug. 30 in the Kishinena Creek area of British Columbia’s Flathead Valley. At that time the fire was five hectares in size. It had grown to encompass about 4,500 hectares as of Monday.
Amid hot weather and high winds on Saturday, the fire expanded east seven kilometres toward Waterton Lakes National Park.
“It started by lightning and it grew to about 4,500 hectares and encroached upon the northwestern boundary of Waterton Lakes National Park,” said Waterton communications officer John Stoesser. “Parks Canada is now actively managing portions of that fire that are impacting the park.”
The Kenow Fire has not moved further into Waterton Lakes National Park, but it does continue to grow. As of Tuesday evening it was burning approximately 6,500 hectares.
A national incident management team is on site, along with three initial attack crews and five helicopters. A crew from Ontario is assisting and another crew from Quebec will be arriving this afternoon. Parks Canada is co-ordinating the firefighting efforts with the Alberta and B.C. governments.
The fire management team is assessing containment options and crews are working on facility protection, using water pumps and sprinklers. There are plans in place to protect the townsite, campgrounds, cabins, roadways and utilities.
Stoesser said there is no major infrastructure at risk right now, although there are some backcountry warden cabins in those areas.
“It’s an isolated portion of the park where the spot fires came over the boundary,” he said.
On Monday, several areas were closed to the public as a precaution. The list of closures grew on Tuesday evening, leaving only the townsite, Pass Creek, Emerald Bay, Prince of Wales and the Linnet day use area open. Highway 5/6, including the townsite entrance and Chief Mountain Highway, remain open as well.
“Safety is certainly our numberone priority,” said Stoesser. “When it comes to fires we don’t want to take any chances. We already did have a fire ban in place and the fire danger has been very high; it’s been extreme for awhile.”
There’s no telling when it will be safe to open the trails as safety is the number-one focus, said Stoesser.
“The closure will be in place until it’s safe for people to be back on those trails again. Once we have a significant change in weather and some significant precipitation we can look into that, but safety has to be the first consideration.”
There is some smoke due to the fires, and air quality conditions change daily. Stoesser recommends checking Environment Canada’s website, www.airhealth.ca, for the current air quality health index.
Daily updates on the situation will be available on the Waterton Lakes website (http://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pnnp/ab/waterton/), on their Facebook page and Twitter. A list of things to do when an evacuation alert is in effect is also on the website. In addition, www.parkscanada.ca/fire has links to fire alerts for all mountain national parks.