Firefighters have battled three brush fires within Port Alberni’s city limits in the last few days, including one that crept close to West Coast General Hospital on Tuesday.
“It was right adjacent to the hospital, so their oxygen tanks are right there,” said Fire Chief Mike Owens.
Another brush fire was burning at the same time about 200 metres from the end of Cherry Creek Road, Owens said.
Both covered less than half a hectare in areas with brush and small trees.
“Had we not been able to get on it right away, it could have grown to something more,” Owens said.
The two brush fires followed a Sunday night fire at Dry Creek that covered a hectare and took two days to suppress, he said.
Other than the heat dome in late June of 2021, “this is probably as bad as we’ve seen it since I’ve been here,” said Owens, a five-year veteran of the fire department.
The Coastal Fire Centre has been dealing with several wildfires across Vancouver Island, including a pair of small blazes caused by lightning strikes, said fire information officer Gordon Robinson.
One was east of Sayward near Amor de Cosmos Creek and has been put out, while the other is north of Strathcona Park and classified as being held.
Two more fires, both under half a hectare, were reported overnight Tuesday just south of Fanny Bay and are now under control.
Robinson noted that the entire southern and eastern portions of the Island have an extreme fire-danger warning.
Firefighters are still tackling the Newcastle Creek fire near Sayward covering 230 hectares, the Cameron Lake Bluffs fire at 229 hectares and the Klanawa Valley fire near Nitinat Lake at 16.6 hectares. All are deemed under control.
“With the bigger ones like Cameron Bluffs and Newcastle Creek, the amount of work involved in going in and digging out every hot spot and extinguishing it, to be totally sure it’s gone, is quite significant,” Robinson said.
“Given the wildfire situation across the whole province, our real priority is to get them while they’re small and keep them from turning into those sustained-action fires that require a lot of resources.”
