Wildfires Still Showing ‘Active & Extreme Behavior’

The BC Wildfire Service is dealing with more new fires, as its crews work to get some control on the other burning around the province.

Kevin Skrepnek, chief information officer with the Service, updated the latest numbers.

“Today we have 219 fires burning across the province. We had 35 new fires yesterday. There continues to be active and extreme fire behavior right across the board right now,” Skrepnek told a media conference.

Photo: Kevin Skrepnek, BC Wildfire Service

The number of people evacuated due to the fires is up a few hundred from Monday, to 14 thousand 365.

The entire city of Williams Lake was put on evacuation alert Monday night due to possible wind and lightning on Wednesday.

Robert Turner with Emergency Management BC says people wanting fire related updates are being directed to a new web site.

“The site itself has just been stood up. It’s in progress and will be refined over time, but that is the one-stop-shop for information. And that is at www.news.gov.bc.ca.

Skrepnek says 53.5 million dollars has been spent fighting wildfires this season, with 599 fires and over 43,000 hectares burned.

He says, by comparison, there were 496 fires and 93,000 hectares burned on this date last year.

Skrepnek says challenging weather is expected in the next few days, with hot, dry weather, with the possibility of more wind and lightning.