On August 13, it appears that lightning sparked off a fire on the east side of the Murray River, just outside of Gwillim Provincial Park.
The fire is 4 ha at last report (or about the size of five football fields), and, despite windy weather on August 14 did not appear to be blowing up, though it is worrysome enough for BC Wildfire that three initial attack crew (each crew is three person), along with one piece of heavy equipment, which is on site to establish control lines and hose lines for the crew to use. ” After hose trails are complete, the firefighters will wet the fuel on the perimeter of the fire and work their way inwards,” says Adam, with BC Wildfire.
The fire is near the north end of Gwillim Provincial Park, just south of where Gordon Creek runs into the Murray River (on the other side of the river from the fire), and is near a prominent bend in the river; if the winds blow towards the west, the river will act as a natural fire guard, though winds today were blowing towards the east/northeast.
The fire is visible from the Mount Puggins fire tower, though as of August 14, it appeared no more than a slightly thicker grey smoke against a landscape already covered in smoke: rank two, possibly rank three fire behavior, at least while I was observing it.
There are few resources in the area around the fire, thought there is oil and gas infrastructure 10 km northeast of the fire, and, of course, the fire lookout, about 8 km away.
While the weather is getting cooler, there is always the possibility that high winds and dry weather could cause the fire to blow up.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
