Time to update the old fire watch file.
While the Tentfire Creek fire remains the most concerning fire in the Tumbler Ridge area, it is not the most active. That honour goes to the Ridgeline Creek fire, which was discovered on August 8, and is seeing exponential growth, despite still being listed as 8 ha on the BC Wildfire dashboard.
BC Wildfire Service is so worried about its potential to grow, the area around the fire has been closed to non-essential travel and visitation.
That fire is burning near Red Deer Creek, more than 70 km from Tumbler Ridge, but in an area that has seen a number of major wildfires over the last twenty years.
Slightly closer to town, the Hook Creek fire has basically burned itself out. According to Fire Chief Dustin Curry, the fire wound up running into the Murray River, so couldn’t advance forward, and was trapped by the rocky topography of the region. While a long stint of hot weather and high winds could cause the fire to flare up, it is currently listed as being held. That fire burned about 258 ha of forest, including the trees above Kinuseo Falls, across from the viewpoint. That fire is about 40 km from Tumbler Ridge in a straight line.
Despite the fire not currently being active, Monkman Park remains closed.
Two small fires started near Gwillim Lake after a dramatic thunderstorm blew through the region on August 5. One is still listed on the Wildfire Map, but is considered being held at .01 ha. That fire is also about 40 km from town, north of Highway 29 to Chetwynd.
Also north of Tumbler Ridge, about 50 km from town and farther west, the 10 ha fire near Boulder Lake has seen no significant change in the last few weeks. It is still 10 ha, and still considered being held.
The 0.01 ha fire in Bearhole Lake is also considered being held. That fire is about 25 km east of Tumbler Ridge.
While it no longer has an active front, thanks to some recent precipitation, the Tentfire Creek fire is still a going concern, especially with warm, windy weather in the forecast. The fire has moved into the valley slightly north of the Murray River valley, between Teck’s old Quintette Mine and Conuma’s new mine being developed at Mount Hermann. Crews have been working to force the fire a little farther north, towards the Teck minesite as there is little fuel for the fire to burn there.
Still, the fire continues to smoulder in the Murray River valley as well, though crews have been doing some back burning to try and control it.
BC Wildfire spend much of July constructing guards, and, on July 30 did a major ignition to reduce the amount of fuel the fire had and force it into a bottleneck between the guards and the mine. While the fire managed to get past the guards, crews were able to extinguish that fire before it grew to more than 2 ha.
That brings the fire to within about 17 km of town, and the prevailing winds have been pushing it almost straight towards Tumbler Ridge. And while strong winds and hot weather could push it closer to town, the chance of it making it past all the clearcuts, roads and well sites is slim. And even if it does manage to get that far, it would still have to cross the Murray River and the Highway.
There are now 13 firefighters on the blaze, supported by three helicopters and three pieces of heavy equipment.
The other fires that have started in the area, including a fire about 5 km from town, are now considered out. There have been 13 fires within 100 km of town since April.
Provincially, there have been 1,486 fires. That’s more than the ten year average of 1352, though nowhere near the 3064 fires that happened in 2009. 660,071 ha of area has burned, and while most of the fires are out, there are still 268 actively burning.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
