Record breaking temperatures at the end of last month has lead to a series of wildfires burning in the Tumbler Ridge area.
Cool weather and up to 10 mm of rain on the weekend brought one of the fires burning around Tumbler Ridge under control.
A 0.3 ha fire near Boulder Lake appears to have mostly gone out on its own, and is no longer of concern to the BC Wildfire service.
Two small fires still burn in the Boulder Lake area, about 3 km southeast of the lake. Like all the fires still burning, it is believed they were caused by the lightning storm that blew through our region on June 30 and July 1.
Both these fires remain under 0.1 ha in size.
A reported fire in the Wolverine Valley has been removed from the map, leaving four fires burning.
A 180 ha fire started in the Hook Creek and Imperial Creek area, near their confluence flow into the Murray River, about 3 km west of Kinuseo. That fire has gone from 30 reported ha to 180 reported ha, and has moved to within about a km of the falls themselves.
The fire of most concern is the Tentfire Creek Fire. Crews were brought in over the weekend to work on the fire, located off of the Kinuseo Falls Road at about km 37.
First noticed on June 30 at 10 pm, the Tentfire Creek fire has grown to 715 ha since initially spotted.
On Saturday, July 3, the status of the fire was changed from “Out of Control” to “Fire of Note” on the Wildfire website, but this means, says Fire Chief Dustin Curry, that BC Wildfire has now allocated resources to fighting the fire. Crews and equipment are working to establish machine guards, with aerial support from two helicopters. A contingency guard is also nearly complete.
The fire has spread in all directions, moving down into the Tentfire Creek valley and across the creek, as well as up the valley, over the top of the ridge and into the Murray Creek Valley. Smoke was rising about 2 km down the valley on Monday, though no open flames were spotted.
Cool weather is helping keep the fire under control, and, while the weather is expected to remain cool for the next few days, the temperature is expected to jump into the high twenties.
The fire is about 22 km from town near Tentfire Creek, off the Kinuseo Falls road, which has been closed to prevent access into Monkman.
One of the crew working on the fire is parked near where the logging road heads up to the fire on Monday afternoon. He says it has been a good day, with the fire being blown back onto itself. And he’s there waiting for more equipment to fight the fire, which should give the fire crews an additional leg up on the fire.
Driving up the Tentfire Creek road, there is a place to view the fire. While it had been burning hot on Thursday (when the above picture was taken), it had mostly burned itself out by Monday. From across the valley, only a dozen tiny columns of smoke rose from trees opposite.
Two flatbed trucks arrive, one carrying a cat, one an excavator, which begin slowly moving up the hill towards the western edge of the fire, where the smoke has grown from a tiny column to a thick billow.
As if on queue, a gout of flat spurts up into the sky, blazes for a moment, then is gone, but the amount of smoke rising from that spot is greater than before, Blown towards—not away from— stands of unburned timber.
There are more columns of smoke farther west, too. And while the fire is mostly out, it is not all out.
Meanwhile the two pieces of heavy equipment, looking like insects against the blackened forest, continue to make their way slowly that direction.
The two fires have forced the closure of Monkman Provincial Park, as park officials worry that the Tentfire Creek fire could cut off access to the park. The road entrance into the park boundary is now blocked, and signage has been put up. Anyone entering the park during this time could be charged with Trespassing.
All the fires are suspected to have started due to lighting. There are now 201 fires burning across the province, bringing the total number of wildfires this year to 576.
And while all the fires in the Tumbler Ridge area were suspected to have started by lightning, that is not the norm; of all the fires across the province this year, only 140 are suspected to have been started by lighting. More than half (340) are suspected to have been human caused. The remaining 96 the cause is undetermined.
One of those fires raced through the town of Lytton last Wednesday, destroying the entire town.
However, these fires are much farther away from Tumbler Ridge than that one was to Lytton. And that area was much hotter and drier than here. Local officials are reminding residents to be prepared, but to remain calm.
“At this time the District of Tumbler Ridge is actively monitoring both situations in collaboration with the BC Wildfire Service and Emergency Management BC and are receiving updated information as becomes available, says Aleen Torraville, Director of Corporate services for the town. “While there is currently no need for alarm, residents are reminded to be prepared to leave quickly during an emergency event as you may not get as much notice as you would hope for.”
The District has activated its Emergency Operations Centre to keep tabs on the fires.
This is the story as it appears in the newspaper. For up-to-date information, visit this story.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
