Hundreds of wildfires burning across BC; international, national support called in

KAMLOOPS (NEWS 1130) – There are currently more than 450 wildfires burning across British Columbia.

According to the BC Wildfire Service, more than a dozen are considered wildfires of note, however the biggest one is currently the Snowy Mountain fire, located about 14 kilometres south of Karameos in the Okanagan-Similkameen region.

“That one is burning right now at about 10,900 hectares,” Fire Information Officer Kyla Fraser explains. “That one’s definitely one of our highest priority fires.”

It’s forced evacuations as well as evacuation alerts for many in the region.

“It did have some aggressive fire behaviour [Friday] night due to extreme winds.”

Fraser adds crews are continuing to work on this blaze with the help of aircraft.

International, national resources

Crews are currently facing a number of different challenges. The overall challenge, Fraser says, is the stretch on resources around BC.

“We have reached out to out-of-province personnel both nationally and internationally,” she explains. “So we do have some crews from Alberta and the Northwest Territories that arrived here a couple of days ago, some more from Saskatchewan expected [Sunday].”

Firefighting personnel are also going to be arriving from Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico in coming weeks. Crews from these countries were also called in to assist last year, when BC marked its worst wildfire season on record.

“We had a lot of international help last year, which was very appreciated,” Fraser tells NEWS 1130.

She says the BC Wildfire Service is extending its request for help internationally both because the situation is quite serious, but also to try to avoid a situation like the province saw in 2017.

“We’re definitely in a much different fire season than we saw last year. There’s quite a lot of fires happening, but not the severity that we saw last year. So we’ve called in additional resources, not only to maintain the ability to respond to what we’re dealing with now, but also to look ahead.”

Fraser points to the fact that there’s still a little more than a month of summer left. “We definitely want to make sure we’re pacing our own people, given that August has been off to such a busy start.”

Don’t be complacent

As many head out of town this weekend and into the backcountry, the BC Wildfire Service is once again reminding people to be careful.

“Avoid any activity that could cause a wildfire,” Fraser urges. “We’re responding to a significant amount of lightning-caused wildfires at the moment, so any human-caused fires are entirely preventable and they also divert crucial fire fighting resources away from these naturally occurring fires.”

Don’t forget, campfire bans are in effect almost entirely across the province, except for in the Prince George fire centre. Failure to comply with a fire ban can land you a $1,150 ticket.

You’re asked to report anything you see.

Wildfires that shut down HWY 3 likely human caused: BCWS

A pair of wildfires that shut down a portion of Highway 3 near Keremeos for a few hours Saturday morning were likely human caused, according to the BC Wildfire Service.

“The biggest one is two hectares and the smaller one is 0.6 hectares,” Fire Information Officer Nicole Bonnett says. “They are believed to be suspected as of some sort of human activity so we do have our fire origin and cause team going up to site today.”

The highway has since re-opened but Bonnett says firefighters are still on scene mopping up hot-spots.

“We had a few crews out there [early Saturday morning] so they were able to respond very quickly, and we had another crew come out from the Penticton area so everybody got out there very fast,” she says. “Obviously it’s a priority, they’re right along the road there.”