Firefighters are working to set up a containment line around a wildfire that ignited in the Cowichan Valley on Saturday.
The blaze has an estimated 4.1-hectare perimeter and is rated a rank-two fire out of a six-rank rating system.
“Rank two means it’s a vigorous surface fire with some flame,” said Julia Caranci, fire information officer with the Coastal Fire Centre. “We have seen some growth, however we are still making progress in terms of developing a containment line.”
Caranci said B.C. Wildfire has 16 firefighters, one helicopter and two water tenders working on site. The fire is burning within a kilometre of the Cowichan River, and there is no threat to critical infrastructure or human life at this time, she said.
The fire is under investigation but is suspected to be human caused.
A campfire ban was lifted for the Coastal Fire region on Sept. 20, but the province has been experiencing unseasonable warmth and dry conditions in October.
Caranci said the region is definitely still seeing an active fire season, partially because there hasn’t been a “season-ending rain event.”
“We’re still seeing a number of fire starts,” she said. However thanks to longer, cooler nights, fires are not behaving with the same rate of spread and aggressiveness they would have a month and a half ago.
