Planned ignition on Red Creek Fire, northwest of Fort St. John  (Photo credit: BCWS)

By Liam Verster

Wildfire Update

Wildfire response continues as service prepares for hot weekend

May 12, 2023 | 12:40 PM

The B.C. Wildfire Service is responding to active fires while also preparing for the heat wave to hit the province over the weekend.

The agency stated Thursday, May 11, that operations are ongoing in the northeast corner of B.C. where two fires are burning near Fort St. John and in the southern section of the Prince George Fire Centre where a third out of control fire is located north of Mount Robson Provincial Park.

As of 10 a.m. Friday, May 12, the active out of control fires were the Red Creek fire northwest of Fort St. John, which was estimated at 2,716 hectares in size; the Boundary Lake Fire east of Fort. St John at the Alberta Border, which was 6,171 hectares.

The Teare Creek fire just outside Mt. Robson was last estimated to be 1,100 hectares on Wednesday, May 10.

The BCWS noted those fires are all near the Alberta border, and that a 16-person incident management team and several structure protection resources have been deployed to the neighbouring province, though where exactly was not disclosed.

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As of 12:30 p.m. May 12, there were 41 active wildfires in B.C., including two in the Kamloops Fire Centre, of which the Okanagan is part of. Both KFC fires were under control.

A heat wave caused by an unseasonably strong ridge of high pressure is expected to hit the majority of B.C. Friday and continue into the next week.

Several days of above average temperatures, including in the mid-30s in the Okanagan, could result in conditions being more prone to fires sparking.

As of time of publication there was no fire ban or restrictions in the Kamloops Fire Centre.

The service also stated it is preparing to respond to flooding events brought on by the heat and increase snowmelt activity.

B.C. Wildfire noted the temperatures are expected to drop to slightly cooler than usual when the high pressure ridge dissipates Tuesday, May 18.

As of May 11, a total of 153 wildfires had been sparked in B.C., with the Wildfire Service stating 90 per cent of those were human caused.

That to-date fire total surpasses the 105 fires recorded in the same time frame of 2022, as well as the 10 year average of 139.

To date, a total of 11,741 hectares have been burned by wildfires in B.C.

Again, that figure is well above the 371 hectares burned in the same period of time in 2022, and was above the ten year average of 10,062 hectares burned by this point of time.

Category 2 and 3 open burning was not permitted in the Cariboo or Prince George Fire Centres as of time of publication, and while those were the only fire bans in place, forest use restrictions had been issued for the Prince George Fire Centre.