Wildfires as of 2:40 pm on Friday, July 29, 2022. (Supplied: BC Wildfire Service)
The wildfire risk across B.C.’s Interior is in the high to extreme range yet again, as more and more fires continue to pop up across the Kamloops Fire Centre.
It’s due to the recent weather conditions, including recent lighting strikes in addition to the heat warning sweeping across the region.
Due to these weather conditions, more and more fires are continuing to pop up across the Kamloops Fire Centre.
BC Wildfire Spokesperson Melanie Bibeau says it’s difficult to put a number on just how many fires have started, however, she notes there are several fires in the Kamloops, Vernon, and Shuswap areas.
“They (Crews) are still out patrolling and keeping an eye out for new starts so, it’s hard to know 100 per cent at this time for an exact number.”
While most of the new fires are spot-sized, Bibeau says there are a few slightly larger ones near Ashcroft.
“We currently have three fires near the Ashcroft area. One of them is estimated at four hectares, one of them is 16.7 hectares and the other is spot sized, and they are within about 1.6 kilometres of each other.”
Bibeau adds that the resources being used to respond to those fires in the Ashcroft area, are distributed among the three incidents.
“We currently have a five-person initial attack crew, a helicopter, and an air tanker responding, as well as water tenders and machinery that are providing additional support, and then we also have an additional helicopter with a three-person repel crew on route as well.”
As for the spot fires that have started in the Kamloops Fire Centre, Bibeau says BC Wildfire crews are out at several burns with Initial attack, Parattack, and Rap attack crews.
“We have helicopters that are tanking onto the fires and then we also have our Indigenous IA crew which is continuing to monitor the need for additional resources for a fire that is up in the more Sun Peaks area.”
Meantime, the Nohomin Creek Wildfire which sparked near Lytton roughly two weeks ago is roughly 30-square kilometers in size, its cause has officially been identified as “human-caused.”
