Putting out fire with gasoline?

Gelled and ignited gasoline were dumped from a helicopter Monday to spark a 3,000-hectare controlled blaze around the edge of the massive White Rock Lake fire, near Vernon.

The operation is aimed at burning off trees and shrubs in hard-to-access terrain that would otherwise be consumed by the fire, which has destroyed 81,000 ha of forest between Vernon and Kamloops.

Unless the controlled burns are undertaken, there’s a chance the fire could burn for months and even spark up again in the spring, particularly given the extremely dry conditions, the BC Wildfire Service says.

“Planned ignitions are the safest way to remove fuel that can burn well into the fall and winter. In 2018, fires that occurred in severe drought areas burned underground over winter and started burning again in the spring,” the BCWS says.

The ignitions will occur in three areas within containment lines that have been built over the past two weeks by crews using heavy equipment. Water is available along the lines.

A helitorch is an aerial ignition device hung or mounted on a helicopter that disperses ignited lumps of gelled gasoline, according to the U.S. National Wildfire Co-Ordinating Group. It’s typically used for backfires, burnouts, or prescribed burns.

While one helicopter is outfitted with a helitorch, two other helicopters will be fitted with plastic sphere dispensers, the BCWS says.

The NWCG describes this as a device which “injects glycol into a plastic sphere containing potassium permanganate, which is then expelled from an aircraft. This produces an exothermic reaction resulting in ignition of fuels on the ground for prescribed or wildland fire applications.”

The operation also involved 40 firefighters using “drip torches” to ensure the fire burns right to the edge of the containment lines, the BCWS says.

Other resources being used against the White Rock Lake fire on Monday included six bucketing helicopters “for cooling support.” additional aircraft if necessary, and 120 Canadian Armed Forces soldiers.

No substantial growth in the size of the fire has been observed the last few days, the BCWS says.