The BC Wildfire Service says the Ross Moore Lake fire is now estimated to be 4,157 hectares – 41.5 square kilometres – in size.

While it’s not quite doubled in size from the previous estimate of 2,721 hectares or 27.2 square kilometres, Information Officer Forrest Tower tells Radio NL the change in size is due to better mapping work that was completed on Monday evening.

“It reflects growth from the last four plus days so those perimeters hadn’t been updated in a while just based on our helicopters all being assigned purely operational tasks but we were able to get someone out to update those perimeters,” Tower said.

“So now those perimeters are all accurate as of last night when those tracks were taken.”

While it has been generating a lot more smoke, Tower says the lightning-caused fire has not breached the existing guards, and its not threatening Kamloops or highway corridors in the area.

“We are constantly reassessing in terms of fire behaviour growth modelling and observed fire behaviour,” Tower added. “If and when needed, we would follow those processes for recommending orders and alerts but at this time there is no increased amount of threat to any of the priority areas in and around the fire. It is just still burning in some pretty heavy fuel which is producing quite a bit of smoke.”

“Fire behaviour usually picks up around 1 pm into the evening and then dies down once there is cooler temperatures and the sun has set. There is no rapid growth in any direction necessarily. The primary area of activity is still in the northwest corner.”

There are still 18 TNRD properties within the fire zone that remain on evacuation order, while around 300 others remain on alert.

“The forecast winds, increased temperatures and low relative humidities will continue to cause elevated fire behaviour in the coming days,” the BC Wildfire Service said in an update Tuesday. “The activity is expected to continue to be primarily along the west and south flanks.”

“A ridge of high pressure will cause winds to subside Thursday and Friday, but temperatures will continue to climb and daytime humidities will be very low with poor overnight recoveries.”

Firefighters are continuing to directly attack the south and east flanks of the fire. They will also be using direct suppression and hand ignitions to hold the line at the pipeline with crews patrolling areas with low fire activity.

Tower also says the Lower East Adams Lake fire is now estimated to be 2,527 hectares in size while the Bush Creek East fire is estimated to be 982 hectares in size.

Both of those size increases also coming after better mapping work done Monday.

“On all three fires, given how warm and how dry it is, we are expecting that there will be continued growth in the days ahead,” Tower said. “But with the operations that we’ve had in place, we’ve been able to keep fires where they are. While we will still see some growth in areas where there are more trees that are burning and producing smoke but where the fire is not threatening any highway corridors or structures.”

“And with the incoming resources this week, we have an increased amount of ground resources on these fires that will just be working day in and day out to control lines to try and keep it contained.”