As of noon today, there were ten new wildfires that broke out since yesterday across the Kamloops Fire Centre, and the BC Wildfire Service says eight of them are believed to be human caused.

That number has since increased to 19 but its unclear how many of the additional fires are human caused at this time.

Fire Information Officer Gagan Lidhran says the largest fire is the Crazy Creek fire between Salmon Arm and Revelstoke, which is burning out of control at 15 hectares in size.

“That was discovered on August 16, so its been a couple of days. Its 9.3 kilometres north of Highway 1. We have a 20 person unit crew on site for that fire,” she told NL News. “It is a surface fire with some visible open flame. No structures are threatened at this point though.”

There is also a fire of note burning on the east side of Skaha Lake between Penticton and Okanagan Falls. The cause is under investigation, but the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen has issued an evacuation order for 319 properties in the area.

Lidhran says there are three other 10 hectares fires that are burning out of control in the Kamloops Fire Centre.

“The Barriere Pass Forest Service Road fire on the north end of Adams Lake, about 46 km northeast of Barriere. We’ve got 31 personnel and one helicopter assigned to the fire, and we did have air tankers working overhead this morning,” she added, noting there are surface flames, and the fire is growing at a moderate rate but no structures are threatened.

Another fire is about 57 km north east of Adams Lake, burning around the 3.5 km mark of 800 Road.

“It is mostly a surface fire with some visible open flames. We’ve got a 20 person unit crew on there, and the suspected cause of that one is lightning,” Lidhran noted.

The third fire is the Laluwissin Creek fire burning about 28 kilometres southeast of Lillooet. It is highly visible from Highway 12 as well as the village itself, and there are 22 wildfire personnel on scene today.

“The fire experienced no growth overnight. Today, the fire is a smouldering ground fire with no open flame,” Lidhran said, noting the fire is suspected to be human caused.

“Ground crews and  air support in the form of airtankers and helicopters were onsite yesterday, with multiple crews and heavy equipment continuing to work through the night.”

The fire danger rating for most of the Kamloops Fire Centre is high to extreme. As of yesterday, there were 136 fires in the Kamloops Fire Centre, and Lidhran says 68 per cent are believed to be human caused.

“Human-caused wildfires are preventable and detract important resources away from responding to unpreventable lightning-caused wildfires,” she said. “There is still potential to see lightning today so there is still potential for wildfire ignitions. So we are reminding the public to be cautious of the preventable human caused wildfires.”

Environment Canada has lifted the heat warning for Kamloops, but notes it will still be hot for a couple more days, before temperatures return to near seasonal on Thursday.