A fire which broke out early Saturday afternoon on the south end of Merritt has prompted the city to call in additional resources to fight the blaze.

Located next to the former Tolko Sawmill, the so-called Lilly Lake Road Fire is generating a huge amount of smoke.

As of early Saturday evening, the BC Wildfire Service listed the fire as less than a hectare.

“The Lilly Lake Road wildfire still estimated to be 0.6 hectares in size,” said Melanie Bibeau with the BC Wildfire Service early Saturday evening. “There are air tankers assigned to this incident.”

The fire has prompted the activation of the City of Merritt’s Emergency Operations Center.

“Merritt Fire and Rescue are responding to it, and we have activated our mutual aid agreements,” said Greg Lowis with the EOC Command.  “We have assistance on-site from Logan Lake, from Lower Nicola Indian Band, from BC Wildfire. There are some water tankers that are coming in from Wildfire as well. We’ve got helicopters buckets.”

While the fire is not threatening any homes at this point, the City of Merritt is asking people to stay away from the fire itself.

“The biggest thing that we’re asking people to do is to stand back and let the Fire Department and their colleagues room to action this fire so they can get it under control and make sure Merritt is safe,” said Lowis.

Just watched a tandem of about 6 or 8 water bombers come through pic.twitter.com/1BTC6mZZoj

— Catherine Belliveau (@Miss_KittyCat80) July 29, 2023