Category Archives: Forest Fires

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.

• Evacuation order for Laidlaw, B.C.
• Evacuation order for Hudson’s Hope, B.C.
• Evacuation alerts remain for Eastgate
• Smoky skies prompt warning

HUDSON’S HOPE, BC — The BC Wildfire Service says a fire in British Columbia’s Peace region has grown out of control due to high winds, noting temperatures are expected to increase and no precipitation has been forecast for the area. Information officer Sarah Hall said Sunday the Battleship Mountain fire has doubled in size to 2.4 square kilometres since Friday after being sparked by lightning on Aug. 30. Dry conditions have persisted for about five weeks, she said, adding crews are working to protect critical infrastructure, including the W.A.C. Bennett Dam and a wooden bridge, while trees in danger of falling are being assessed. …A spokesman for Emergency Management BC says an estimated 1,000 people were forced to leave their homes. The wildfire service says another wildfire, about eight kilometres east of Bearhole Lake, is also classified as out of control and estimated at 63 square kilometres.

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.

JASPER NATIONAL PARK — The mayor of Jasper, Alta., is asking visitors to stay away from the town and national park as a nearby wildfire is expected to grow and crews work to restore power. Richard Ireland says the restoration of electricity through temporary generators has been rife with technical problems and the Chetamon Mountain fire, about 15 kilometres away, has made the situation precarious. Ireland says ATCO is assessing the extent of the damage to its overhead transmission line, but the utility says repairs could take several weeks. …Katie Ellsworth of Parks Canada says the wildfire is estimated at 55 square kilometres and is expected to grow without significant rainfall. “We would like to echo and reiterate the mayor’s messages, that it is not the time to visit Jasper right now.”

B.C. wildfire crews will be in a “tight crunch” tonight and Tuesday to bring in heavy equipment and establish guard lines to help stifle the Battleship Mountain wildfire near Hudson’s Hope. “We’re ramping things up to begin to really start going at this thing over the next number of days,” said incident commander Scott Rennick said. The Battleship fire is now at an estimated 11,949 hectares, or about 120 square kilometres in size, roughly five times the size of the city of Fort St. John. …There are now 25 firefighters assigned to the blaze, who have access to the area over the W.A.C. Bennett dam, which can’t take heavy equipment. Sixteen helicopters are assigned to the broader Battleship complex of six fires burning in the region, with bucketing operations at the sides of Battleship Mountain ongoing to “buy time” until the heavy equipment arrives, Rennick said.

The Regional DIstrict of Okanagan Similkameen has issued evacuation alerts for the community of Eastgate due to the Heather Lake wildfire burning in Manning Park. One-hundred-eighty properties are impacted by the alert, listed here. Residents are being told to pack their bags and be ready to evacuate on a moment’s notice. The wildfire is straddling the U.S.-Canada border and is burning about five kilometers southeast of the Manning Park Resort, two kilometers south of Highway 3 and 10 kilometers southwest of Eastgate. It has burned 1,900 hectares of Canadian forest. Burning within a park protected from commercial logging and ravaged by the mountain pine beetle, fire officials say the blaze is consuming “a heavy fuel and has the potential for aggressive and rapid growth if winds, and terrain align.” …Structural protection crews are on site installing sprinklers on assets.

B.C. firefighters are battling two aggressive and fast-spreading wildfires, as hot, dry and windy conditions hamper containment efforts. One is the Heather Lake wildfire that started in the U.S., in the Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service. That blaze, which is considered out of control, was discovered in the U.S. last month but officials said Saturday that it has now crossed the border and is quickly spreading into E. C. Manning Provincial Park. The fire “is exhibiting aggressive fire behaviour and is highly visible from Highway 3,” fire officials said. The fire is suspected to be caused by lightning and is estimated at 1,500 hectares in size. Meantime, an evacuation alert was issued Friday …by the Penticton Indian Band for the Shingle Creek area due to the Blue Mountain Wildfire, which broke out Friday west of Penticton and quickly spread to 50 hectares, fanned by strong winds.

Visitors and residents in Jasper should be prepared for “extended” power outages as crews continue to battle the Chetamon Mountain wildfire, the town’s mayor said Monday. Parks Canada officials and ATCO crews were switching to generator power to keep critical sites including the hospital and water treatment facilities running after losing power from the main transmission lines around 4 a.m., Richard Ireland said in a news conference Monday. The town itself was under no direct threat from the fire — which is burning about 15 km north of the townsite — and officials were not considering evacuation. However, Ireland said it is still too soon to say how long the town will be without power. …“I don’t know how long ‘extended’ might be, and we don’t know yet all of the capacity issues. So even when power is restored, it may not be possible to restore power to all the facilities accessed by the ATCO grid,” he said.

Additional coverage in City News Everywhere, by Alejandro Melgar, ‘Out of control’ wildfire grows to nearly 8,000 hectares, power out in Jasper

HUDSON’S HOPE, BC — There are currently three wildfires of note raging in the Peace Region. The largest of those fires, the Battleship Mountain wildfire has now grown to 11,944 hectares. The fire is currently burning out of control about 50 kilometres west of the community of Hudson’s Hope, which has declared a local state of emergency.  On Saturday, the Peace River Regional District issued an evacuation order for people in the Battleship Mountain and Carbon Lake areas due to the threat from the fire. The Battleship Mountain fire grew overnight, driven by wind gusts of up to 65 km/h. The BC Wildfire Service said, “abnormally strong winds” were contributing to the growth and spread of the fires, while smoke had reduced visibility “limiting fire suppression operations.” …The Peace River Regional District issued the evacuation order “due to immediate danger to life, safety, and health due to wildfire.”

The Heather Lake wildfire located in the E.C. Manning Park is now estimated at 1,900 hectares. This is a significant increase from the estimate of 400 hectares reported on Sunday. According to the BC Wildfire Service, smoke and the type of topography in the area made it challenging for crews to accurately map the fire. The fire continues to burn in a “highly volatile fuel type” which has the potential to introduce aggressive fire behaviour in the coming days. Highway 3 and the Manning Park Resort remain unthreatened, however, the fire is about five kilometres away from the resort. “This wildfire is also resulting in dense smoke, especially east of Manning Park Resort,” says BC Parks. “Wildfire crews are actively monitoring and may be working in the area. In the event of changing wildfire conditions, visitors in this park may receive limited notice to evacuate.”

The B.C. Wildfire Service declared two wildfires of note in B.C.’s Peace region on Thursday, as officials warn September will continue to pose a risk after a calmer than average summer. The Battleship Mountain wildfire is estimated to be 5.5 square kilometres and is burning out of control about 50 kilometres west of Hudson’s Hope. The Dinosaur Lake Wildfire is also near Hudson’s Hope, burning about five kilometres from the Peace Canyon Dam and Highway 29. The B.C. Wildfire Service upgraded that fire to “out of control” on Thursday but says it is not threatening any structures. Officials say the fire is exhibiting moderate to extreme fire behaviour and additional growth is expected. The suspected cause of the fire — which is being exacerbated by weather conditions — is lightning, according to Prince George Fire Centre spokesperson Alex Lane.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Alberta — The province is reminding residents in the Grande Prairie Forest Management area that a fire advisory is currently in place. That means all current fire permits are suspended, with the exception of burn barrels, incinerators, smudges, and smokehouse permits. No new permits are being issued and essential burning is being evaluated on a case-by-case basis until significant rain falls in the region. There is currently one active wildfire in the GP Forest Management area, which is listed as being under control. Since March 1st, around 96 hectares of land have been burned by a combined total of 56 wildfires. [END]

Nearly half of wildfires burning in B.C. remain out of control, but the number of fires of note are reducing. As of Monday (Aug. 29), there are 201 active blazes throughout the province. Of them, 93 are considered out of control, 58 are under control, 38 are being held, 10 are new and two are fires of note. Fires of note are ones that are particularly visible or pose a potential threat to the public. A week ago, six wildfires were classified as such. On Sunday, the Connell Ridge fire near Cranbrook was the latest wildfire to be reclassified and is now considered under control. …The fires of note are located in the Kamloops and southeast fire regions. They include: Keremeos Creek (estimated fire size: 7,017 hectares) and Weasel Creek (estimated fire size: 1,088 hectares).

A wildfire burning near Great Central Lake in Port Alberni is currently being held at 6.4 hectares. The fire was reported to Coastal Fire Centre on the evening of Sunday, Aug. 28. It is located near the 25-km mark on Ash Main Road, just a kilometre west of Patterson Lake. “We responded with crews last night,” said Gordon Robinson, a fire information officer with the Coastal Fire Centre. “They worked through the night and got it to being held this morning.” This means that as of Monday, Aug. 29, the wildfire is not likely to spread under current conditions. Robinson said BC Wildfire currently has about 20 people working on the ground, as well as some personnel and an excavator from Mosaic Forest Management.

The Keremeos Creek wildfire burning southwest of Penticton his now considered “held.”  After nearly a month of suppression efforts, the BC Wildfire Service made the announcement Friday morning.  “At this stage, the wildfire will not likely spread beyond predetermined boundaries under forecast conditions. Wildland firefighting crews continue to patrol control lines, conduct fuel management activities and mop-up,” BCWS said.  The fire, which sparked on July 29, has scorched just over 7,000 hectares of forest in an area between Apex Mountain Resort and Olalla and Highway 3A.  It is expected the fire will continue to burn at a low intensity until winter, so smoke may be visible for several weeks.  “In places with the potential for further spread, crews have used a combination of direct attack, black-lining, and wet-lining to extinguish or remove available fuels 15 to 30 metres from the edge of the fire inward,” BCWS said.

Additional coverage in Penticton Herald, by Joe Fries: Disaster averted on Keremeos Creek fire

The hot and dry weather in much of Alberta is creating the perfect conditions for wildfires to ignite and spread. “We are expecting the high fire danger to continue as long as this hot and dry spell continues as well,” said Josee St-Onge, provincial information officer with Alberta Wildfire. The heightened risk is affecting most of the province — in the boreal forest and along the southern part of the Rocky Mountains. “Some of that is typical for this time of year, especially dryness in the south of the province, but that does mean that we’re not going to be on high alert,” St-Onge said. “We have crews positioned in strategic areas throughout the province to be able to respond to wildfires quickly, and we do expect more fire activity in the coming week.” As of Friday afternoon, there were 64 wildfires burning in Alberta — 37 are held, 23 are under control and four are out of control.

The number of blazes BC Wildfire Service considers particularly visible or threatening is set to reduce from five to three. By end-of-day Aug. 25, the Briggs Creek fire near Kaslo and Mount Docking fire near Radium Hot Springs will no longer be classified as fires of note. …Across the province, 82 of the 230 wildfires actively burning are out of control, according to BC Wildfire. Another 65 are under control and 34 are being held. Forty-four fires are considered new, with the final five considered fires of note (soon to be three). Lightning is believed to be the cause of 76.1 per cent of them, with people behind another 7.4 per cent and the start of the remaining 16.5 per cent unknown. …There are 84 wildfires in the southeast, 34 in the Kamloops fire region, 39 along the coast, and 16 in the Cariboo region. Another 39 are burning in the Prince George fire region, with the final 18 in the northwest.

Smoke-free skies above the Unist’ot’en Healing Centre, where BC Wildfire crews have worked for the past two days to bring a lightning-sparked fire under control, have raised hopes that an evacuation alert for the surrounding area might soon be lifted. Several Wet’suwet’en homes and occupation camps in the area between Lamprey Creek, south of Houston, B.C., and the area north and west of Morice Lake were included in the alert, but it was unclear which, if any, Coastal GasLink work camps in the area were also affected. …this past Monday healing centre occupants abandoned a work bee at the remote location nearly 70 kilometres southwest of Houston and prepared to leave at a moment’s notice. …By Tuesday morning, the fire had grown to about five hectares and its status had been updated from “out of control” to “being held,” Northwest Fire Centre information officer Casda Thomas said.

A wildfire near the Nimpkish River south of Woss on northeastern Vancouver Island has grown to 25 hectares, making it the largest blaze of the season, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service. The fire reported Saturday is considered out of control. The cause is not yet known. A series of lightning strikes has been blamed for eight other fires on the Island over the past several days. All of those fires are considered spot fires, or under a hectare in size. Christi Howes of the Coastal Fire Centre said the wildfire service has deployed a “modified response” to the Nimpkish River fire — because no structures or human activity are near the blaze, a perimeter has been set up to observe the fire’s behaviour and start suppression techniques. …Amid rising temperatures and dry conditions that have led to fire-risk ratings on the Island ranging from ­moderate to extreme in some areas…

Just shy of 40,000 hectares have burned as the result of wildfires so far this year in B.C. The number is a large one, but just a fraction of the more than 850,000 hectares that burned in 2021, and the 10-year average of 320,377 hectares burned per wildfire season in the province. The only years with lower burn areas in the last decade, according to BC Wildfire Service data, are 2020 at 14,536 hectares, 2019 at 21,138 hectares and 2013 at 18,298 hectares. The most destructive years were 2017 and 2018, with 1.2 million and 1.35 million hectares burned, respectively. The relatively low burn area so far this year is thanks in large part to the wet winter and cool spring B.C. experienced, according to BC Wildfire Service. The province saw very few wildfires until about the end of July when more hot, dry conditions set in. As of August 22, 192 fires are actively burning throughout B.C., 69 of which started in the last two days.

Due to more accurate tracking, the Vlem Creek wildfire is now an estimated three hectares in size.  BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) fire information officer Shaelee Stearns said Saturday will see 25 firefighters work on the blaze using eight pieces of heavy equipment to help establish fire guards. Three helicopters have also been assigned to the fire.  The Vlem Creek wildfire is believed to be human-caused.  The Township of Spallumcheen has activated a level-one emergency operations centre in response to the fire. The Armstrong Spallumcheen Fire Department is further assessing the blaze with BC Wildfire and township staff.  The township noted in a news release that as of Saturday afternoon the fire has not entered township borders and no structures are currently threatened.

The B.C. Wildfire Service says they responded to several new wildfires Friday, and at least one blaze thought to be contained is now burning out of control.  According to the B.C. Wildfire Dashboard, there were 180 active fires across the province Saturday morning, an increase of 76 in the last two days.  According to the service’s Twitter feed, crews responded to “numerous wildfires that were sparked by lightning” overnight Thursday and through Friday in the Cariboo Fire Centre — which stretches from Clinton, north to the Cottonwood River, east to Wells Gray Provincial Park and west to Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.  Most of the fires are located in the 100 Mile and Central Cariboo regions, with one fire northeast and another southwest of Canoe Lake, plus a third near Big Bar Lake, they said.