Wildfires still rage in B.C. despite milder temperatures and rainfall

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British Columbia saw milder temperatures and rainfall across many parts on Monday, but not enough to slow the province’s volatile wildfire activity.

Mike McCulley, an information officer with the BC Wildfire Service, said severe drought conditions, unstable air and continued lightning strikes meant fire danger remained high.

There were 39,000 lightning strikes across the province over the weekend and 61,000 in the week prior – figures that are not unusually high, but their consistency and vast geographic spread mean challenging fire conditions, he said.

“With a drought like this, what happens is they get way down into the ground and we pick up holdover fires for quite a while,” Mr. McCulley said. “So it’s not just the imminent lightning that happened over the weekend; it’s the long-term impact of that for days to come. And we will see more lightning in the upcoming days.”

This is already B.C.’s worst wildfire season on record, by area burned. As of Monday, 14,874 square kilometres of the province had burned, surpassing 13,542 square kilometres in 2018.

As of Monday afternoon, there were 484 active wildfires across the province, including 23 that were either highly visible or pose a potential threat to public safety.

They include the Ross Moore Lake fire south of Kamloops, which was first discovered Friday and ballooned to 26 square kilometres by Monday afternoon, triggering a number of evacuations.

Kevin Skrepnek, director of the Emergency Operations Centre for the Thompson Nicola Regional District (TNRD), said Monday that the biggest challenge was managing limited access to the “very, very agricultural” Knutsford area captured by the evacuation orders.

He said emergency and wildfire officials are permitting some residents back in on a case-by-case basis, primarily to feed or relocate livestock, during limited windows in the mornings.

“Obviously, that’s a tricky balancing act for us, in terms of working with [BC Wildfire Service] to keep it safe out there, both for [residents] and for the responders, but also understanding that people’s livelihoods are potentially at stake,” he said.

B.C. officials ask onlookers to stay away from active wildfires

As of Monday afternoon, evacuation orders remained in place for 344 properties, and evacuation alerts for 157 others, as a result of the fire, according to the TNRD.

Meanwhile, an evacuation order issued last Monday for Aqam, a First Nations community located near Cranbrook, because of the St. Mary’s River wildfire was partly rescinded and downgraded on Sunday, allowing 16 households to return home.

“We are supporting our community members with the re-entry process,” said Aqam Nasuʔkin Chief Joe Pierre in a statement. “And while this is an exciting time for all those who can return home, we know it comes with mixed emotions as friends and neighbours have lost homes and others remain on evacuation order and are not able to go home yet.”

As of Monday morning, the St. Mary’s River wildfire was 40 square kilometres. In Aqam, 36 properties remained on evacuation order, and 26 on evacuation alert.

On Sunday, B.C. Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Bowinn Ma welcomed 100 firefighters from Brazil at the Abbotsford Air Tanker Base as they deployed to Prince George to assist with wildfire response.

They joined about 600 other out-of-province firefighters from Australia, the U.S. and Mexico; 150 members of the Canadian Armed Forces; and roughly 2,000 BC Wildfire staff.

Three people have died this year battling Canada’s wildfires. On Wednesday, pilot Ryan Gould, 41, died when his helicopter crashed near Haig Lake, Alta. Firefighter Devyn Gale, 19, died after being struck by a falling tree while she was clearing brush in a remote area near Revelstoke, B.C., on July 13. Firefighter Adam Yeadon, 25, died from injuries sustained while responding to a fire near his hometown of Fort Liard, NWT, on July 15.