There are currently 481 wildfires burning across the province, and 23 of those fires are wildfires of note. Over the weekend, fires in the Kamloops Fire Centre had significant growth. The Ross Moore Lake wildfire (K22024), which is approximately 24 kilometres south of Kamloops is now 2,600 hectares in size. In the Southeast Fire Centre good progress was made on the St. Mary’s River wildfire (N11805) on Sunday, this fire is now 4,093 hectares in size. Firefighting efforts in the northern regions of the province received some reprieve due to lower temperatures and some precipitation. On Sunday, successful planned ignitions were carried out on the Donnie Creek wildfire (G80280), where crews burned an area of approximately 4 kilometres to solidify containment lines.
Over the weekend, we welcomed 102 additional wildfire fighters from Brazil. They will be supporting firefighting efforts in the Cariboo Fire Centre. The current firefighting effort across our province consists of approximately 600 out-of-country resources, and over 2,000 BCWS staff members. We are very grateful for all the support from local community contractors, including heavy equipment operators, first aid attendants, food suppliers and many others.
Weather
This weekend, weather remained significantly hot and dry in the southern regions of the province. The Northern regions received some precipitation but it was not substantial enough to negate drought conditions. Significant lightning was received over the weekend, 39,260 lightning strikes were recorded in B.C. since Friday.
Moving forward we are seeing the same trend of warm and dry conditions in the southern regions of the province with no precipitation anticipated in the near future. A significant concern will be overnight recoveries and crossover conditions, where the relative humidity of an area falls below the temperature of an area. We are expecting some windy conditions in the coming days and some rain for the northwest regions of the province.
Southeast Fire Centre
St. Mary’s River (N11805)
Lladnar Creek (N12046)
Kamloops Fire Centre
Casper Creek (K71535)
Ross Moore Lake (K22024)
Coastal Fire Centre
Dean River (VA1335)
Davis Lake (V11152)
Young Creek (VA1735)
Northwest Fire Centre
Old Man Lake (R21250)
Parrot Lookout (R21234)
Tintagel (R11244)
Peacock Creek (R21178)
Planned ignitions used to eliminate fuel
An effective tactic to control an advancing fire is to “burn-off” fuel between the fire’s edge and control lines. Burn operations are coordinated by skilled and experienced firefighters and risk is mitigated with careful planning using fire weather information.