Two wildfires on Island; northern B.C. faces evacuations
A small wildfire classified as out-of-control is burning at Moriarty Creek, north of Englishman River and south of the CoombsHillier area.
The 0.2-hectare fire was reported Sunday afternoon, and on Monday was smouldering with no open flame, said Coastal Fire Centre information officer Julia Caranci.
The only other fire on Vancouver Island is south of Hyde Creek and was reported Saturday night.
It started in a chip pile, Caranci said. The Hyde Creek and Port McNeill fire departments are assisting the B.C. Wildfire Service with the blaze, which is listed as under control.
Both fires are believed to be human-caused, and neither is putting any homes or other buildings at risk.
Meanwhile, a blaze north of Fort St. John has grown significantly, forcing renewed evacuation orders and alerts.
The British Columbia Wildfire Service website says the Donnie Creek wildfire charred an additional 275 square kilometres over the weekend. The fire, about 160 km north of Fort St. John, remains out of control and is estimated to have burned a total of 1,575 square kilometres of trees and bush since it was sparked by lightning on May 12.
Evacuation orders were issued Sunday by both the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality and the Peace River Regional District for remote areas primarily used by oil and gas industry infrastructure and camps.
The Northern Rockies Municipality said its order is in response to changes in weather in the Klua Lakes area east of Highway 97, while the regional district order plus an alert along the southern flank of the fire reflect the risk to work camps.
Large sections of coastal B.C., the central Interior and the northeast are now rated at a high to extreme wildfire danger as the weather office calls for a sunny, drying trend, and the wildfire service warns of possibly “significant fire activity” in parts of the province this week.