B.C.’s wildfire situation is at its worst so far this season despite summer coming to an end.
As of Sunday, the B.C. Wildfire Service was reporting five wildfires of note.
Two of those fires — Heather Lake and Fat Dog Creek — are within the E.C. Manning Provincial Park east of Hope and are out of control. The larger Heather Lake blaze was discovered last Sunday and was 400 hectares as of Sunday morning. The Fat Dog Lake fire is smaller at 20 hectares. No structures are threatened but the blazes are aggressive.
The larger and more troubling fires are within the Prince George Fire Centre region. These are the Battleship Mountain, Bearhole Lake and Dinosaur Lake wildfires.
The Battleship Mountain fire is burning 50 kilometres west of Hudson’s Hope and is 10,500 hectares and out of control.
On Sunday morning, the wildfire service reported the fire was spreading aggressively, driven by northeasterly winds with fire growth expected to continue into Monday due to continued high winds. This fire doubled in size from Friday to Saturday and grew a further 2,500 hectares overnight.
The District of Hudson’s Hope has declared a state of emergency while the Peace River Regional District has declared a state of emergency and issued an evacuation order and evacuation alert in parts of the municipality.
The evacuation order was issued on Saturday relating to the Battleship Mountain fire and is for the north shore of Williston Lake and surrounding areas.
The most recent evacuation alert was issued on Sunday morning for the community of Kelly Lake that is four kilometres west of the Alberta border — related to the Bearhole Lake fire southeast of Tumbler Ridge that is 2,500 hectares and spreading east.
A BCWS Incident Management Team has taken charge of the Prince George Fire Centre blazes, which are now defined as the Battleship Complex — comprising the Battleship Mountain, Bearhole Lake and Dinosaur Lake fires. The Dinosaur Lake fire is the smallest of the three at three hectares and is expected to be under control over the next few days. This fire is highly visible from Highway 29 and Hudson’s Hope.
Forests Minister Katrine Conroy said it has been a below-average wildfire season so far this year in B.C., but high fire risks are forecast for September.
She said the number of wildfires and the area they have burned since April both compare favourably with the 20-year average, with 1,355 fires charring 430 square kilometres this year.
That is only about one-sixth of the area burned by 1,515 fires to this date on average, and one-twentieth of the 8,650 square kilometres burned last year, when the province was scorched by the heat-dome weather event.
He said warm, dry weather is forecast to continue through September, which will keep fire risks high in the province’s southwest and northeast regions.
— With files from Tiffany Crawford
