Fire Burns Closer To Canada-US Border

A fire in the United States is moving closer to the Canada-US border.

Kevin Skrepnek from the BC Wildfire Service says a blaze in Idaho is about one kilometre from the border, and 18 km’s southwest of the closest Canadian community, Newgate in southeastern BC.

“We are starting to monitor it pretty closely. We’ve got staff working with the U-S Forest Service to look at what the potential is for that fire to keep spreading north.”

The Elephant Hill Fire — west of Kamloops — has seen increased activity.

Skrepnek says some dramatic smoke columns were generated by the massive fire Tuesday night which could be see as far away as Williams Lake.

“Having said that, the activity, the burning was mainly within the perimeter of where the fire had already burned. There was some areas that were excursions, but for the most part, it was within the already established perimeter of the fire.”

Skrepnek says the Plateau Fire Complex, west of Quesnel — which is BC’s largest fire and the biggest in the province’s history — saw no change in its size (467,000 hectares), and had limited growth.

Skrepnek says the next few days, weather wise, will be fairly active, unstable today, with gusty winds this evening and cooler temperatures.

There are 138 fires burning in BC — including 5 new starts.

There have been 1,076 fires this season, burning a record of more than one million hectares, and costing $370 million to fight.

Chris Duffy from Emergency Management BC says there are 22 evacuation orders in place in BC affecting 2,594 residents, and 36 evacuation alerts, covering 12,481 people.