Category Archives: Forest Fires

The Canadian Red Cross is assisting in the evacuation of residents from Little Grand Rapids and Pauingassi First Nations due to wildfire smoke in the communities. In a statement, the Red Cross says it will be evacuating “Priority 1” residents, which include the elderly, babies and those with chronic respiratory problems. A maximum of 150 residents from Little Grand Rapids should be completely evacuated by the end of Sunday, while up to 50 residents will be evacuated from Pauingassi First Nation, the agency says. Evacuated residents are being sent to Winnipeg and will be provided shelter in hotels. Environment Canada has issued a special air quality statement for a portion of southeastern Manitoba, including Winnipeg, due to smoky conditions caused by forest fires.

Fire crews are fighting four new forest fires in B.C.’s northwest, according to BC Wildfire. In a statement Monday, the agency said 10 new fires have been sparked by lightning since Thursday, with four still raging. Firefighters are battling a blaze 12.5 kilometres northwest of Meziadin Junction, as well as two fires 16 kilometres east of Meziadin Junction. They are also fighting a wildfire about 16 kilometres southwest of Kitwanga near Cedarvale. All four fires are under one hectare in size. Sunday saw nearly 23,000 lightning strikes in the northwest part of the province, most of which struck the “very dry” Cassiar Fire Zone.

The BC Wildfire Service is responding to several wildfires following successive lightning strikes across the Northwest Fire Centre. At this time, all fires are less than one hectare. The smoke visible in some areas of the Northwest Fire Centre is a result of large wildfires burning in Alaska and Yukon Territory. Smoke from these fires is particularly heavy in the Cassiar Fire Zone, which includes Iskut, Telegraph Creek, Dease Lake and Atlin. Lightning caused 10 new fires within the Northwest Fire Centre since Thursday morning. The majority are now out or under control, meaning they have received sufficient suppression to ensure they will not spread. …On Sunday, June 30, the Northwest Fire Centre experienced nearly 23,000 lightning strikes, the majority of which occurred in the Cassiar Fire Zone, where conditions are very dry. 

Fire crews are battling a small wildfire overnight near Pender Harbour in B.C.’s Sunshine Coast. The B.C. Wildfire Service says a three-hectare wildfire is burning on Cecil Hill. The fire broke out at about 5 p.m. PT on Monday. No homes and structures are under threat. Thirteen firefighters and five helicopters have been deployed, fire information officer Donna MacPherson said. Air tankers were used Monday to drop fire retardant. The fire is burning on a steep hill in an area with dense forest canopy, MacPherson said. “It’s a low-intensity ground fire, so it’s burning underneath the trees. It’s not the trees themselves that are on fire.” The source of the fire is still under investigation, but it’s believed to be human-caused.

Fire crews have stifled the Lions Bay area fire, which BC Wildfire Service is declaring human-caused, though officials have yet to determine the exact details of how the blaze was triggered.  Marg Drysdale, fire information officer with the BC Wildfire Service, said on Monday afternoon that the fire, which covers three hectares, has been 100-per-cent contained. She said classifying the fire as caused by a person also encompasses equipment-caused fires. Previously, officials were examining the possibility that a downed power line could have sparked the blaze, but that theory has not been confirmed, Drysdale said. “The cause is under investigation,” said Drysdale. “There was some suspicion at the very beginning but now they’re just calling it under investigation, because that has not been clarified….They’re going to have to look deeper into that.”

WEST VANCOUVER — It’s a little slow going on the Sea to Sky Highway today after a wildfire broke out around 11 a.m. this morning. The Strip Creek fire broke out around 11 a.m. between Lions Bay and Horseshoe Bay and is burning up a hillside next to the highway. According to BC Wildfire, the fire is burning in very steep terrain and crews are responding with aircraft support as well as support from other agencies. Donna McPherson, fire information officer with the Coastal Fire Centre said there are currently 29 firefighters working on the blaze, along with five helicopters and an air tanker group with four water skimmers and two planes dumping retardant.

It is likely to be another hot, smoke-filled summer in B.C. this year, and residents should consider taking precautions such as staying indoors on hazy days, experts are warning. B.C. Wildfire Service information shows the province has seen increased drought and higher-than-average temperatures in 2019, and that trend is expected to continue. “Obviously, we expect increased wildfire and smoke risk, and that includes in the southwest, where (Metro Vancouver is). And increased temperatures are likely to drive higher ozone formation, and so we expect there may be more potential for that this summer as well,” Metro Vancouver air-quality engineer Francis Ries said Tuesday. Ozone, a pollutant that when mixed with fine particulate matter creates smog, often irritates the eyes, nose and throat, and over time can cause permanent lung damage. Ries said more studies, including ones that focus on B.C., are making a strong link between climate change and the exacerbation of wildfire seasons.

Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes as gusting winds stoke wildfires burning across northern Alberta. A swath of new evacuation orders were issued Monday, with residents across northern Alberta being told to gas up their vehicles and be ready to leave in a hurry. New evacuation orders were issued at around 11 p.m. for communities in and near Mackenzie County. Everyone in the hamlet of La Crete and the rural area outside of the hamlet east of Steep Hill Creek were ordered to leave immediately. The affected areas also include the Rocky Lane and High Level area north of the Peace River, west of Range Road 150, south of Highway 58, south and southeast of High Level. In an update posted by the province around 9 p.m. Monday, the province said the Chuckegg Creek fire was burning about 10 kilometres directly west of La Crete.

The BC Wildfire Service was called into action near 100 Mile House on Tuesday. Crews were called to a suspected lightning-caused wildfire by Drewry Lake, about 45 kilometres east of the Cariboo community. The fire was first spotted Tuesday, and was about 3.5 hectares in size as of 11:30 a.m. The wildfire service said it had 23 firefighters on scene, along with air tanker support and one piece of heavy equipment working the fire. A second, three-person crew was also deployed to another fire near Greeny Lake to the northwest. A third fire, suspected to have been caused by humans, is also burning near Highway 97 along Lac La Hache.

As of June 18, more than 9,000 people were out of their homes due to wildfires in Alberta, including about 700 from the Paddle Prairie Métis Settlement, who were forced to leave May 26. Three areas were evacuated Monday, including several communities to the south of High Level overnight, as the driest conditions in more than 40 years continue to fuel wildfires in the region. …All Mackenzie County evacuees are required to register at the Fort Vermilion Mackenzie County Office, and Bushe River evacuees were told to register at the Four Chiefs Complex in Bushe River before making their way south to Edmonton. An alert to be prepared for evacuation on short notice remains for the area west of Steep Hill Creek, Range Road 164, south of the Peace River to Township Road 1010

A forest fire on northern Vancouver Island has reduced traffic to a single alternating lane on Highway 19, according to DriveBC. The wildfire is located between Big Tree Main and Rock Bay Forest Service Road, 28 km north of Campbell River. The update was posted last night at 9:43 p.m. and says that an assessment is in progress. The fire has reached .25 hectares, according to the BC Wildfire Service. It was discovered yesterday and its cause is unknown.

Provincial fire crews are working to control a new wildfire near Port Alberni, on Vancouver Island. Smoke is visible in the area as the fire burns in the logging slash at the the west end of Sproat Lake. Two initial attack crews are on scene as well as a contract crew and two helicopters, according to fire information officer Dorthe Jakobsen. The fire was discovered Sunday around 9:30 a.m. and is listed as half a hectare in size. According to the B.C. Wildfire online map, the suspected cause is human activity.  “The precipitation has not been in the large amounts we would like to see, so we are in drought conditions,” said Jakobsen. “We are asking people to be diligent as always in our forests.”

BC Wildfire Crews are working to extinguish fires left in the wake of the thunderstorm which rolled over the Kamloops Fire Centre on Thursday evening. An information officer from the Kamloops Fire Centre said that three firefighters from a rappel crew, who use helicopters to access fires in remote areas, are trying to establish a fire guard around a small fire burning in dense undergrowth near Adams Lake.  …It took until Saturday to locate the fire, when the rappel crew roped in and got to work; the crew spent the night on the mountain and continued their suppression effort the following morning. …The cause of another fire near Kamloops remains uncertain. Suppression efforts are ongoing on the fire burning in the Beresford Lakes area south of Kamloops after it was reported on the afternoon of June 15.

In 2017, a wildfire came within12 kilometres of Barkerville Historic Town and Park, the largest living-history museum in western North America. Since then, a lot of work has gone into protecting the property, which was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1924 and a Provincial Heritage Property in 1958, and a complex fuel mitigation project covering a 52-hectare area has just been completed. …The planning and treatment of this first phase of the fuel mitigation plan presented several challenges due to the high elevation of Barkerville at 4,300 feet, challenging fuel types, and the need to protect heritage and other resource values located in the treatment area. Very few fuel management projects have been done in this type of physical environment, so it was completely new ground for Coleman and his team, according to the release.

Pikangikum First Nation residents are returning home as Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) fire crews continue to make progress on a large blaze that caused the evacuation of the remote, fly-in First Nation. Red Lake Fire 14 is burning just a few kilometres from Pikangikum. And while the fire’s size has remained largely the same since it broke out nearly two weeks ago, as of late Sunday, the 3,800-hectare blaze was listed as being held, the ministry said. Significant rainfall in the area over the weekend has aided firefighting efforts, and crews have begun to remove sprinklers from buildings, homes and other infrastructure. There are 24 crews working on the fire, and they continue to identify and extinguish hot spots, the MNRF said.

VICTORIA — A “lit”terbug was issued a hefty fine after Victoria’s police chief caught him flicking a cigarette butt out his car window. Chief Const. Del Manak said he was travelling on a highway in his unmarked police car when he noticed the driver of a Ford Mustang ahead of him toss the lit butt. “I am driving in the curb lane, traffic was fairly light on Saturday evening and I noticed that the driver had a cigarette in his hand. He had put the ashes out the window as he’s driving and I saw that he took the last drag of the cigarette and he flicked it out his driver’s window,” he said. “It went in the air and landed in front on the road.” That action cost the 21-year-old driver $575 under the province’s Wildfire Act.