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Updated: B.C. Wildfire Service says two wildfires burning near Chase in mop up stage

Victor Kaisar
Mar 30, 2019 | 7:24 PM


Updated: B.C. Wildfire Service says two wildfires burning near Chase in mop up stage

UPDATE – 

With a couple fires already flaring up and knocked down, two of the biggest yet were spotted east of Kamloops on Saturday.

The Kamloops-Shuswap road fire were estimated to be 250 hectares in size, while the River Flats fire is mapped at 100 hectares.

As of yesterday both were in the patrol and mop up stage according to the B.C. Wildfire Service.

The early start to season doesn’t surprise B.C.’s Forests minister Doug Donaldson.

“Well it is definitely an awfully dry spring in large parts of the province,” he said. “We had an average or below average snowpack and we have had the dryness, I know in Kamloops they have been experiencing that, as have many areas of the northwest and across the north.”

“That is exactly why we bolstered the budget to bring crews on earlier and to actually bring air support if it is needed on earlier as well.”

Since Friday including the two Kamloops fires there were a total of 11 wildfires, most very small, that flared up across B.C.

With files from Shane Woodford

 

ORIGINAL –

There are two wildfires burning east of Kamloops, near Chase in the area of Niskonlith Lake.

The first fire is near the Kamloops Shuswap Road is estimated to be 250 hectares in size, while the second one is near River Flat is estimated to be around 100 ha in size.

At this point, there isn’t a known cause for either fire, but NL is waiting to hear back from the BC Wildfire Service.

Several people took to social media to report smoke in the area.

In all, there are 10 active fires of varying sizes across the province at this time.

(Photo: @Camkamacpcam on Twitter)