After two weeks of planning and preparing, then waiting for the weather to be right, BC Wildfire Service is finally doing the controlled burn on the Tentfire Creek Fire.
A controlled burn, also called a backburn, a prescribed burn or planned ignition is a way for firefighters to control the spread of the fire.
They have taken and pushed in fire breaks to prevent the spread of the fire, but if the weather gets hot and windy, and the fire gets burning out of control, it is easy for sparks to be blown across these firebreaks.
In order to make this dead zone wider, the Firefighters are setting fires, which will burn back from the break towards the fire, thereby widening the area the fire has to cross to reach the unburnt forest, in this case along the eastern side of the fire.
Because of this, smoke will be visible in Tumbler Ridge, as well as along the Mast Road and the Kinuseo Falls Road.
The planned ignition area is approximately 650 hectares, spanning a length of 4 kilometres to the west from 8.5 kilometres on the Mast Road.
BC Wildfire Service is working with the Tumbler Ridge Fire Department and local RCMP to complete this burn with minimal impact to the community. “No roadways are impacted at this time; however, the RCMP is on-site to restrict access on the Mast Road as required.”
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.