The BC Wildfire Service is planning a prescribed burn on the White Rock Lake fire north of Monte Lake and Paxton Valley this afternoon.
Incident Commander Mark Healey says with winds from the north, the idea is to burn part of the fire back onto itself, eliminating any potential fuel in the area.
“The fire is to the south of our control lines so with the wind blowing from the north we can control the direction of the fire as it spreads back into the fire itself into our control lines by doing those planned ignitions,” he told NL’s Colton Davies, who is on scene in Vernon.
“The planned ignition is from the northwest corner on Highway 97 up and around past Paxton Lake to the Paxton Valley today with ground crews and heavy equipment and with aerial ignitions as well.”
There are also some hand ignitions happening on part of the northern flank of the fire, north of Westwold.
“We’ve been experiencing rank two and rank three fire behaviour in that area for many days now,” Healey added. “If we do this planned ignition, it will minimize that fire behaviour by taking away all of the fuel to our control lines, and so that fire will go from a rank two and rank three fire to a rank one fire.”
Earlier this week, the BC Wildfire Service said it had built a machine guard along Duck Range Road, south of Pritchard, but noted there were no plans for a prescribed burn at that time.
During that in-person update in Vernon, Healey says there are just under 200 firefighters working on the White Rock Lake blaze, with crews spread throughout higher priority areas of the fire. He notes there are adequate resources right now but also said there is a nationwide shortage of wildfire personnel.
That said, close to 40 more firefighting personnel are coming from Alberta today to help fight the fires in B.C., with 151 personnel from Quebec arriving on Saturday. It it not clear though how many of these firefighters will be deployed to the White Rock Lake Fire.
Most of the fire activity is on the eastern flank near Westside Road with Healey noting the fire is “literally in some people’s backyards.” He also notes the drought conditions in the southern Interior in 2021 are “beyond extreme”, something he notes he hasn’t seen in nearly three decades of fighting fires.
“This is a catastrophic event. This isn’t just a wildfire,” Healey said, during his opening remarks to media. “This is something that is, I think it is new for everybody.”
Healey also suggested that it could a difficult weekend for crews with hot and dry weather expected to be followed by winds.
“The fire behaviour that we are seeing out there, it is beyond extreme in my opinion,” he said. “This fire will grow, for sure. It will grow and we take it day by day.”
As for criticism on social media and from people most affected by the fires, Healey said, that is hard to hear.
“When I hear that not enough is being done, that hits me in the heart. And it not only hits me, but it hits every firefighter on the ground,” he said, noting crews are working extremely long hours.
“The crews on the ground, they are young millennials who live on social media, and they are not taking this well, the message that gets out there. I worry about them for that reason.”
The White Rock Lake Fire is an estimated 58,000 hectares – or about 580 square kilometres – in size.
More to come
– With files from Colton Davies
Healey says there will be a controlled burn on the White Rock Lake fire north of Monte Lake/ Paxton Valley this afternoon (northeast of Hwy 97). He says with winds from the north, this will burn part of the fire back onto itself, burning off potential fuel. #Kamloops @RadioNLNews
— Colton Davies (@ColtonDavies_) August 12, 2021
Healey now showing on map, activity on fire flanks. Closer to #Kamloops:
– SW flank “safest” part of fire near Salmon Lake Resort (near fire origin)
– Repeats controlled burns happening on NW flank (N of Monte Lake)
– Hand ignitions happening on part of N flank north of Westwold pic.twitter.com/sfrKGFU3hJ— Colton Davies (@ColtonDavies_) August 12, 2021
Took calls from concerned residents about a potential planned ignition north of #MonteLake as a machine guard is built along the Duck Range Rd, south of Pritchard.
No planned burns, the @BCGovFireInfo says noting the guard is set up should the fire move that way. #BCWildfire
— Victor Mario Kaisar (@supermario_47) August 9, 2021
