Don’t expect additional resources at the Omineca Complex anytime soon.
124 fire personnel including 60 firefighters from Mexico are battling the Big Creek, Fall River and Nations River wildfires.
Fire Information Officer, Karley Desrosiers told Vista Radio once they complete another controlled burn along with some rainier weather, they will be in a good position to battle the fires.
“As it stands right now, we will continue to have personnel and resources on these fires going forward but in terms of major requests for personnel, that is not really needed as much here.”
The Nation River wildfire is their biggest priority right now as they have structure protection personnel in place.
Desrosiers adds it is the most active wildfire within the complex right now as it is 19,435 hectares in size – the main focus is keeping the roads open and protecting structures like bridges in place and main transportation routes open.
A 200 hectare on the Fall River fire that was scheduled for yesterday (Thursday) is expected to occur today (Friday), smoke permitting.
While the thick smoke prevented crews from getting airborne, Desrosiers mentioned it did keep fire activity at bay.
“The smoke helps to mitigate the temperatures. We did see temperatures reach 26 degrees but the impacts of those high temperatures, the smoke helps to kind of shelter the fire and keep the activity lower than it otherwise would be.”
“By about Monday we are expecting the max temperatures to be in the high teens instead of the high 20s’. It’s likely the fire activity will be lower over the weekend but several operations going forward are contingent on that ignition operation.”
The Fall River blaze stands at 13,813 hectares in size and is just north of the Omineca River.
A controlled burn, spanning 350 hectares on Wednesday for the Big Creek wildfire was quite successful.
The blaze is over 48-thousand hectares.
“Crews are in there now working to secure those guards with hand ignitions and removing any available or unburnt fuel and then we have danger-tree assessors and fallers working those areas to remove any hazardous trees,” said Desrosiers.
“As always, any rain is certainly helpful in reducing wildfire activity, it allows crews to get in closer to the fires edge and do more directive attack. I am looking forward to that and it is going to be a welcome reprieve for our crews,” added Desrosiers.
Across BC, there are 366 wildfires province-wide, 154 of which are in the Prince George Fire Centre – nine are of note.
311 fires have been caused by lightning, 21 caused by humans while the remaining 33 are unknown.
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