The B.C. Wildfire Service is battling several new fires on Vancouver Island following the busiest day in the province so far this year.
The service recorded 115 new fires in B.C. Wednesday — most of them started by an intense lightning system that touched nearly every region. As of Thursday afternoon, there were six new fires on the Island.
Kevin Skrepnek, B.C.’s chief fire information officer, said the service detected 19,000 lightning strikes in one day alone.
“Certainly our busiest day since last year,” he said. “Thankfully, we had a fairly wet start to the month. The first few weeks of June were fairly cool and wet, so some of that moisture has hung for a bit, even though it’s been fairly hot since then.
“We’ve got these 100-plus new fires, but for the most part they’ve been relatively small and we’ve been able to get on them pretty quick.”
Skrepnek said most of the fires are under a hectare in size.
A few larger ones are burning in remote areas and pose no threats to communities.
On the Island, fire information officer Donna MacPherson said the six new fires were caused by two lightning storms — one around Mount Washington and the other between Gold River and Port Alice.
There were three fires in each area and the service expected more to surface as the day progressed.
“The lightning came in with a bit of moisture so that has a tendency to hold the fires pretty quiet,” MacPherson said.
“We expect that more will pop up when we get a little bit of heat and dryness in that area.”
The service deployed five firefighters to each of the two blazes near Mount Washington. One was a hectare in size and surrounded by snow; the other was in steep terrain and measured less than half a hectare.
Farther north, a 15-person crew and two helicopters were battling a four-hectare fire in slash near Vernon Lake. “It’s very visible and it’s pumping out a fair amount of smoke,” MacPherson said.
The fire danger rating remains high on the eastern half of Vancouver Island from Campbell River to Victoria.
MacPherson reminded people to report fires whenever they see them, so that the Wildfire Service can locate them quickly and respond. “If they see a column of smoke, call it in,” she said. “The more calls we get, the more we can triangulate in on these things as they show up.”
Skrepnek urged people to be especially vigilant about preventing fires if they’re heading into the backcountry this weekend.
“The last thing we want to be contending with when we’re in the midst of a lightning [system] like this, is to also be responding to human-caused fires.”
People can report wildfires by calling 1-800-663-5555 or *5555 on their cellphones.
