Fire Probe Concludes

Fire officials have wrapped up an investigation into the cause of a wildfire in Spallumcheen earlier this month.

The Patterson Creek fire burned about 4 hectares Aug. 10 and put 200 homes in evacuation alert, after starting east of Highway 97A near Hutley Road.

Armstrong-Spallumcheen fire chief Ian Cummings and the BC Wildfire Service investigated the cause.

Cummings says the cause will be listed as undetermined.

“Nothing suspicious was found but we suspect it would be human caused as there was no lightning. There was no obvious source of ignition.”

The fire started on the hillside in an area where there wasn’t a road.

“You wouldn’t expect that a fire would start by itself in that area, but again, we didn’t find anything that was suspicious, or that would lead us to believe it was intentionally set,” adds Cummings.