An aggressive and out-out-control wildfire is burning just eight kilometres outside the community of Hudson’s Hope, while the BC Wildfire Service says crews work hard to build a control line between the blaze and the community. More than 1,000 people are on evacuation order in the province, many of whom were forced out by the fire bearing down on Hudson’s Hope. The 287-square-kilometre fire is also just four kilometres away from the W.A.C. Bennett Dam on the Peace River, a key power generator for the Crown utility BC Hydro. Fires west and east of Hope have also prompted evacuation orders and alerts, as well as the closure of the eastbound lanes of Highway 1. The BC Wildfire Service says it expects increased fire behaviour this week as sun and warm temperatures continue. Metro Vancouver’s regional district continued its air quality advisory Monday as smoke from wildfires in B.C. and Washington state blankets the Lower Mainland.
Large areas of Southern British Columbia and Alberta are under air quality advisories, as smoke from several growing forest fires blots out the sun and rains ash particles on the region. Environment Canada’s air quality health index listed Cranbrook, Squamish and Whistler as “high risk” as of late Monday morning, while the Eastern Fraser Valley region was considered “very high risk.” The risk level had lowered somewhat by Monday evening, but was forecast to be high again in Eastern Fraser Valley on Tuesday. …Environment Canada meteorologist Danielle Desjardins said it’s hard to know when the smoke will clear, because that depends on how long the wildfires last, as well as ever-changing weather patterns. …Lori Daniels, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s department of forest and conservation sciences, said the fire season continuing well into September is “a little bit unusual.”
As smoky skies fill much of British Columbia’s Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley, 191 wildfires continue to burn across the province, leading to hundreds of people on evacuation alerts, as well as evacuation orders in the Peace region. Right now, five of the active wildfires are considered notable: the Flood Falls Trail and Heather Lake wildfires in the Coastal fire centre; the Fry Creek wildfire in the Southeast fire centre; and the Battleship Mountain and Bearhole Lake wildfires in the Prince George fire centre. An air quality advisory has been issued for Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley because of high concentrations of fine particulate matter from wildfire smoke in B.C. and the United States.
With assistance from the Courtenay Fire Department and BC Wildfire, Cumberland firefighters battled a blaze on the old Souther homestead on Wednesday, Sept. 7, successfully containing the blaze before it could spread into the forest. Cumberland Fire Chief Mike Williamson said the fire started in a shop next to the main house, and embers from the shop jumped to the main structure. Other embers were causing additional fires among the trees. “When I arrived, the flames were shooting all the way to the top of the trees,” said Williamson. “Then the stuff flying off the trees was causing other spot fires, so BC Wildfire showed up… I told them I needed them to walk through the forest and find any hot spots flaring up. They did a really good job.” An unusually windy afternoon created the potential for a devastating wildfire, as the homestead sits amidst the Cumberland Community Forest.
Authorities announced significant evacuations in the vicinity of the Nakia Creek Fire in Southwest Washington. Some 400 acres were burning and approximately 1,000 homes may be affected by the evacuation order. Meanwhile, much of the Pacific Northwest west of the Cascades was experiencing poor air quality over the weekend because of smoke amid windy, dry, unseasonably warm weather. In Washington, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency said the region had air quality ratings ranging from unhealthy to unhealthy for sensitive groups. …The conditions, which also prompted red flag warnings for increased fire danger, were expected to continue through Sunday. …A new fire ignited Saturday northwest of Portland near Fishhawk Lake, according to state Forestry officials. It wasn’t threatening any structures. Nine other fires were burning throughout the Northwest in one of the driest periods on record.
SAN FRANCISCO — Federal investigators have taken possession of a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. utility transmission pole in a criminal probe into what started a Northern California fire that has become the largest in the state this year, the utility said in a regulatory filing. U.S. Forest Service officials indicated to PG&E that an initial assessment showed the Mosquito Fire started near one of its power lines on National Forest lands, the Oakland-based utility said in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. …The Mosquito Fire has scorched 120 square miles and was 85% contained as of Monday. The blaze in the Sierra Nevada foothills, about 110 miles northeast of San Francisco, broke out Sept. 6 and has destroyed at least 78 homes and other structures and charred forestland across Placer and El Dorado counties. PG&E equipment 
SAN FRANCISCO — A major storm that battered western Alaska over the weekend churned through Northern California on Monday after bringing early-season snow to mountains and dropping rain that helped firefighters increase their containment of a huge wildfire. No growth was reported on the 119-square-mile Mosquito Fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills northeast of Sacramento. The blaze was 38% contained Monday after downpours allowed sheriff’s officials in two counties to lift or downgrade some evacuation orders. It’s the state’s largest wildfire of the year so far. More rain was expected, which fire spokesman Scott McLean called a mixed blessing for firefighters. “It did help a bit to stifle that aggressive fire,” McLean said. “But we’re going to have new safety issues now with all the mud that’s out there. And the ground moisture could cause some of those damaged trees to fall over.”
POWELL COUNTY, Montana — The No Grass Creek fire east of Deer Lodge is estimated to be 1,145 acres, U.S. forest officials said Thursday. The fire, reported on Sunday, is in Powell County on the west end of the Helena Ranger District and the far east end of the Pintler Ranger District. It is being managed by the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest and Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, in close coordination with Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. The fire is in an area that has had large amounts of tree mortality, officials with the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest said. It is dense and continuous throughout the Electric Peak roadless area and recommended wilderness area. Because of the current state of the dead timber, it’s neither safe nor effective to put fire personnel into the area, officials said. 
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THE fire which started last Thursday afternoon, September 8, in Los Guajares, and has now razed through 3,000 hectares of land, is believed to be a human-caused wildfire. According to members of the Forest Fire Investigation Brigade (BIIF), the exact point at which the fire started has been identified. Specifically, at a spot few centimeters from a particular curve in the road linking the villages of Guajar Faragüit and Guajar Alto. As stated by Antonio Aguilar, head of the BIIF in Granada, natural causes such as lightning or any similar phenomenon have been ruled out as the cause of this currently ongoing fire in Granada. However, Aguilar and his team, who are currently preparing a report on the incident, are yet to decide whether the origin is intentional or the result of the negligence of a person passing through the area.