Officials fear blaze will burn into U.S.
The Snowy Mountain wildfire south of Keremeos may jump the border into the United States.
As of Thursday, the out-of-control fire was 12,039 hectares in size and 40 per cent contained.
According to BC Wildfire Service information commander Claire Allen, the fire remains west of Chopaka Road but is burning toward the south approximately three kilometres from the U.S. border.
“Ground crews continue to face difficult topography. Firefighters are being strategically placed where it is safe,” said Allen. “The presence of rattlesnakes in the area brings further challenges to crews.”
The BC Wildfire Service team assigned to the Snowy Mountain fire is working with the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.
Lee McFadyen lives near the Snowy Mountain fire.
“It’s been stressful watching it come down the mountain. A flood plain separates me and the fire, but I still have a bag packed just in case,” she said.
Neighbours are in constant contact with each other about the fire’s activity.
“Helicopters are still working, dropping water in one deep gully this morning (Thursday),” said McFadyen.
A total of 106 firefighters and seven pieces of heavy equipment are on the scene. Eleven helicopters are battling the Snowy Mountain and nearby Placer Mountain fires. The Placer Mountain fire, which was also started by lightning on July 17, is now 90 per cent contained.
In the Central Okanagan, the Goode’s Creek fire, in Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park, has been removed from the BC Wildfire Service’s “Wildfires of Note” page. Discovered on July 17, the fire grew to 1,370 hectares. It was classified as “under control” on Aug. 4, and the Okanagan fire complex has been rerouting resources to other fires in the area.
Four major fires are burning east of Vernon: Harris Creek FSR, Proctor Road, Sugar Mountain and Mabel Creek.
A total of 31 firefighters are battling the out-of-control fire at Harris Creek FSR, 16 kilometres southeast of Lumby.
At Proctor Road, 16 kilometres northeast of Lumby, a 52-hectare fire is being held. Crews are making excellent progress with containment, the wildfire service says.
The fire at Sugar Mountain is classified as out of control. Current sizes for many fires in the area have been difficult to estimate because of heavy smoke.
An estimated 200-hectare fire at Mabel Creek is zero per cent contained. An area restriction was put on the Crown land around Mabel Lake on Aug. 4.
Air quality has improved slightly across the valley, dropping from a six to a five on the 10-point Air Quality Health Index scale. Four to six is classified as moderate, calling for people to decrease outdoor activity if they feel symptoms.
More wildfires are burning in British Columbia in 2018 than in past years, but the total amount of timber burned is well below average, a wildfire official says.
“It’s very difficult to directly compare one fire season to another just based on the statistics alone, because the stats only tell part of the full story,” said Ryan Turcot, spokesman for the BC Wildfire Service.
Across the province, 476 wildfires were burning Thursday, including 39 new fires sparked the previous day, while 1,565 have been recorded so far this year, well above the average of 1,130 expected by this point in the season, Turcot said.
“In terms of area burned, we are still sitting at about 75 per cent of what the average would be for this time of year,” Turcot noted.
Wildfires in 2018 have chewed through 1,180 square kilometres of brush and timber, far below the 10-year average of 1,550 square kilometres.
“But that doesn’t tell the whole story because that doesn’t factor in things like the human impact of wildfires, the proximity of some of these wildfires to communities or to people and property,” Turcot said.
With hundreds of fires burning across the province, firefighters from around the world have arrived to help out. There are now fire crews from Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, New Zealand and Australia.