Cariboo wildfire triples in size, forcing property owners to flee

100 MILE HOUSE — A wildfire in the Cariboo region west of 100 Mile House is rapidly expanding.

The B.C. Wildfire Service said the blaze is an estimated 380 hectares, after more than doubling in size within three hours.

The Cariboo Regional District Emergency Operations Centre said a number of properties have been evacuated as a precaution and an evacuee reception centre has been set up at a curling rink.

The wildfire service said the blaze started near a forest service road and the cause is under investigation.

Sixty firefighters, plus local fire departments, are battling the blaze with support of helicopters and other heavy equipment.

The service said water bombers are reloading from Watson Lake and anyone using the lake is asked to give the aircraft enough space to operate safely.

In Washington state, a grass and brush fire burning in part on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation was 85 per cent contained and is not threatening any of the site’s nuclear facilities. It has burned about 93 square kilometres in Yakima and Benton counties.

In Colorado, firefighters were working Thursday to keep a wildfire that’s forced out hundreds of people from spreading toward homes near Breckenridge Ski Resort and the nearby historic town.

Crews were attacking the fire, burning about three kilometres north of the resort, by dropping firefighting slurry from the air as well as building containment lines on the ground to stop it from reaching nearly 500 evacuated homes. Insurance companies also paid to send contracted fire engines to the area to try to protect the pricey ski properties.

The relatively small blaze quickly sent up a column of smoke visible from Interstate 70, Colorado’s main east-west highway, and the 19th-century Victorian buildings in the town of Breckenridge, a onetime gold-mining camp.