Close to 60 firefighters are holding the line on a stubborn 73-hectare wildfire on Mount Hayes, northwest of Ladysmith.
The blaze is being held, which means it’s not likely to spread further under forecasted conditions, Gordon Robinson, Coastal Fire Centre information officer, said Monday.
Firefighters have surrounded the perimeter of the fire with fire hoses fed from portable water containers. They’re using this to create a “wet line” or wide wet strip round the fire, he said.
“It’s currently at 20 feet and they’re trying to push it out to 50 to 100 over the next day or two. Ideally, you want the fire to burn right to that line so you are spraying down ash,” said Robinson.
The fire has burned deep into the ground because of the dry conditions and the heavy slash. Firefighters are still removing forest fuel and will be using hand tools to dig out hot spots and wet down the earth to remove the remaining heat from the fire.
“It’s going to be quite a lot of work for quite a while,” said Robinson.
The fire prompted a local state of emergency and 20 properties on Takala, David and Ivey roads were placed on evacuation alerts. However, evacuation orders for the Fortis B.C. liquified natural gas plant and the Bush Creek Fish Hatchery have been downgraded to evacuation alerts.
Maureen Pietrzykowski, who lives across the highway from the fire, still sees hot spots pushing up smoke “but it’s remarkably much better than it was.”
The smell of smoke depends on the wind direction, but it hasn’t been overwhelming, she said.
“It’s tolerable and not feeling like it’s harmful. It’s much calmer than what I was seeing before. It’s very low lying smoke, more like wispy smoke now, not roaring fire smoke, ” she said.
The area on the face of Mount Hayes is still smouldering underground, so the firefighters have their work cut out for them, she said. “Or we need a beautiful rain.”
On Monday, 58 firefighters were hard at work, with three excavators, nine water tenders and two helicopters.
The forecast called for winds out of the east, southeast and south during the day Monday, which would blow the smoke away from Ladysmith. “But there could be some smoke tonight in Ladysmith with winds out of the northwest,” said Robinson.
He emphasized the importance of observing campfire bans. The Conservation Officer Service received more than 20 reports of campfires this weekend, he said.
“The fire danger rating on the Island is extreme. It’s a really dangerous thing to be doing right now. We’re nowhere close to taking those fire bans off. This fire is a perfect example of how fast these things can go,” said Robinson.
