Fire Believed To Be Biggest in BC History

BC has not only set a record for most area burned in one fire season, but also for what is believed to be the biggest single fire.

Kevin Skrepnek from the BC Wildfire Service says the Plateau fire between Quesnel and Williams Lake, is over 467-thousand hectares.

“It’s far and away the largest fire in the province, and we’re looking back at our records, and we suspect that at this point, this is in fact the largest single fire we’ve ever had in the province’s history,” says Skrepnek.

The Plateau fire is 19 fires that have merged into one, and is 130 kilometres from one end to the other.

There are 135 fires burning in BC — including seven new fires since Sunday.

BC has seen a record amount of land burned by wildfires this year — but the actual number of fires is lower than normal.

Skrepnek says there’s been 1,064 fires since April.

“That is below average from where we would usually be at this point. And that is all to do to the fact that we had a very quiet spring. The big story across most of the province this spring was flooding.”

Skrepnek says two years ago at this point, BC had had over 1,700 fires.

So far, it’s cost 351 million dollars to fight the fires this year.

The number of people still out of their homes due to fires in BC is about five thousand less than a week ago.

Chris Duffy from Emergency Management BC says there are currently 24 evacuation orders in place around the province.

“The estimated number of people on evacuation order is about 38-hundred, and on evacuation alert, estimated at just under 97 hundred.”

Among the fire evacuees recently allowed to go home are residents of Loon Lake east of Clinton, and those north of Green Lake in the Cariboo.