Showers help ease Island forest fires
Rainy weather over the past few days has helped forest-fire crews around B.C., including those at the Lizard Lake fire near Port Renfrew.
The human-caused fire has been burning for close to three weeks about 11.5 kilometres northeast of Port Renfrew and 27 km southwest of the Town of Lake Cowichan. The Pacific Marine Road between the two communities was closed as a result of the fire, but reopened last week.
The rain has helped get the fire to a point where it is 90 per cent contained, said Donna MacPherson, a fire information officer with the Coastal Fire Centre.
“It certainly helped,” she said. “It meant the crews could make better progress.”
MacPherson said containment is reached in an area when firefighters believe the fire can’t get past an established “control line.”
“It will still continue to burn in the middle,” she said. “On large fires that’s common.”
There were 33 firefighters and two pieces of heavy equipment working on the fire Monday, she said. The blaze was covering 393 hectares.
Also on Vancouver Island, the Dog Mountain fire near Sproat Lake — another human-caused blaze — continues to cover 50 hectares, but is 100 per cent contained and is being allowed to burn. The fire started July 4.
Around B.C., 169 forest fires were burning Monday, with the majority of them caused by lightning.
Rain will continue to fall over the next few days, said Environment Canada meteorologist Matt MacDonald. He said the Port Renfrew area was expected to receive 10 to 15 millimetres Monday, similar to the forecast for Victoria.
Daily high temperatures in Victoria over the next few days are forecast to be 17, below the normal of 21.
“It’s a pretty drastic change in the weather pattern, obviously,” MacDonald said. He said sunny weather should return on the weekend.
KAMLOOPS — Cool, wet weather hasn’t dramatically reduced the number of wildfires burning across British Columbia but has allowed officials to rescind all but one, partial campfire ban.
Provincial fire information officer Ryan Turcot said Monday that 169 wildfires were burning across the province, down from 177 reported earlier in the day.
He said the Kamloops and Southeast fire centres have rescinded their campfire bans, meaning fires up to a half-metre wide by a half-metre high are now permitted in all six fire centres, except for sections of the Cariboo.
He said campfires in the Cariboo are permitted east of the Fraser River but remain prohibited west of the waterway. The campfire ban in the Coastal Fire Centre, including Vancouver Island, was lifted on Friday.
Open fires — meaning fires larger than a campfire, industrial burning, fireworks, sky lanterns and burn barrels — are allowed only in the Northwest and Prince George fire centres.
Use of Forest Service roads is now unrestricted across the province, except for some areas of the Southeast fire centre.
The B.C. Wildfire Service continues to restrict areas around the Big Sheep Creek wildfire, which is burning west of Rossland.
The Seven Summits trail at the intersection of Red Resort to the intersection at the Old Cascade Highway remains closed but is open from the Nancy Greene Summit to Red Mountain Resort, it added.
Evacuation alerts were lifted over the weekend in the Grand Forks and Christina Lake areas, although Turcot said the nearby Stickpin wildfire close to the border in Washington state is still uncontrolled.
Canadian crews have been building guards on the northern flank of the 210-square-kilometre fire and Turcot said units protecting structures were wrapping up and returning to Canada.
Firefighters were also able to fully contain the human-caused Little White Mountain fire, which charred two square kilometres of bush south of Kelowna.
In Wenatchee, Washington, several thousand people gathered Sunday to honour three U.S. Forest Service firefighters killed battling wildfires on Aug. 19.
The memorial service for 20-year-old Tom Zbyszewski, 26-year-old Andrew Zajac, and 31-year-old Richard Wheeler took place about 150 kilometres south of where they died near Twisp in eastern Washington as flames consumed their crashed vehicle.