THE BOG BURNS IN DELTA
Burns Bog blaze closes highway, sparks evacuation of industrial park
Firefighters battle a blaze at Burns Bog in Delta on Sunday. Part of a highway was shut down and a nearby industrial area was evacuated after the wildfire grew to more than half a square kilometre. As of Sunday, officials said the cause of the fire was unknown. For details, see
Delta and provincial fire crews worked feverishly throughout Sunday to control a wildfire that broke out at Burns Bog in Delta.
The fire, first spotted at 11:30 a.m. and fuelled by high winds, grew to between 55 and 70 hectares, shutting down part of a highway and forcing the evacuation of an industrial area to the west of the bog.
A massive plume of smoke from the fire could be seen from many Metro Vancouver municipalities, and some residents of nearby communities such as Surrey and Langley reported ash falling from the sky and the acrid smell of smoke.
Up to 100 firefighters fought the blaze, with five helicopters, air tankers and water skimmers from the B.C. Wildfire Service sent in to help local crews.
Delta fire Chief Dan Copeland said fire crews hoped to establish a perimeter on the ground by Sunday evening, allowing them to battle the blaze from the ground on Monday morning.
“We’re putting up a guard. We think we are staying on top of it,” said Copeland, adding a night watch was being set up to monitor the fire overnight, with crews expected to be back at first light Monday.
The cause of the fire, which started in the northern section of Burns Bog, just west of 80th Street, is yet to be determined, said Copeland. Donna MacPherson, spokeswoman for the B.C. Wildfire Service, said the fire was not caused by lightning.
Highway 17 in both directions between Hwy. 99 and the Nordel Connector, and River Road from 62b Street to the Nordel Connector remained closed overnight.
The fire temporarily halted marine traffic on the Fraser River to allow water skimmers to operate safely, and knocked out transmission towers for some local radio stations, including AM 730’s traffic tower.
One Delta firefighter was sent to hospitalized due to a medical condition exacerbated by the environment at the scene of the fire.
The fire chief said the primary challenge with the fire was the presence of high winds, which shifted from a southeast direction to north. As a result, the fire jumped Highway 17 and inched closer to Tilbury Industrial Park, which was evacuated between 76th Street to Webster Road, and River Road to Progress Way.
At one point in the afternoon, the fire was categorized as Rank 3, which meant the flames were jumping to about shoulder height. By Sunday evening, the fire was downgraded to Rank 2.
Copeland described the fire as a brush fire.
“Putting out fires in this type of fuel is very difficult. It burns deep,” MacPherson said, explaining crews have to go below the surface of the peat to find embers travelling underfoot.
Copeland estimated it will take up to a week before the fire is fully extinguished.
This isn’t the first time a wildfire has hit Burns Bog, a 3,000-hectare, ecologically sensitive area in Delta that houses rare animal and plant species. In 2005, a 200-hectare blaze at Burns Bog took more than a week to extinguish and triggered air-quality problems in the region.