On July 26, after a week of being listed as “being held”, the Tentfire Creek Fire has been downgraded to out of control.
This comes as days of cool wet weather come to an end and the forecast for the foreseeable future is warm and windy.
The fire, which had been estimated as being 2400 ha, has been downgrade in size to 2,180 ha. Cool weather and rain had led the BC Wildfire Service to consider the fire as being held, but with warmer, drier weather in the forecast, the fire is expected to grow over the next few days.
As a result, BC Wildfire Services are moving another unit of 20 firefighters onto the fire. They are expected to arrive today. They will join (or possibly replace most of) the 28 firefighters, two helicopters and eight pieces of heavy equipment already working on the fire.
Last week, the fire boundaries jumped to the south side of Tentfire Creek.
The fire experienced periods of rapid growth July 12-16, going from an estimated size of 1000 ha to 2,180 ha. The fire is now about 18 km from the townsite.
The fire has not experienced much growth over the last ten days or so, as cool weather and rain did much to restrict the growth of the fire. It also allowed crews to build a few new fire breaks. But much of the fire is in inaccessible, mountainous areas, so crews are unable to do much to control the fire.
There have been 1236 fires so far this year, 250 of which are still active. The ten year average for Wildfires is 1352, while the most fires we’ve had in the province in the last decade is 2117, in 2018.
The Tentfire Creek fire, plus a second fire at Hook Creek, just west of Kinuseo Falls has forced the closure of Monkman Provincial Park to the public for safety reasons. Hiking trails accessed off the Monkman Falls Road remain closed as well.
The Hook Creek fire has grown to 258 ha, and is less than 1 km west of one of the town’s most popular tourism destinations. Jet boaters (access to the falls by the river is still open) have reported being able to see the fire from the river.
A third, 10 ha fire is burning near Boulder Lake, but is listed as “being held.”
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.