Six wildfires popped up in the Tumbler Ridge area at the end of April/beginning of May, as the temperature temporarily got up to nearly 20 degrees.
The first batch of fires started on April 30. That’s the day a series of five fires began along Highway 52 in the Fellers Heights/Brassy Creek area.
While the fires were not anywhere near town, they forced the closure of the highway and took out a section of Telus’ fibre optic cable, which goes above ground for about a kilometre in that area. That killed all the cell phones and most of the internet service to town, though people with Starlink were still connected to the outside world.
The outage lasted about a day and a half, as crews were unable to get to the downed lines until the fire was under control.
The largest of the fires burned 267 hectares (ha) on the north side of the highway, encompassing three of the fires before all was said and done. A second, much smaller fire a few kilometres north and east of the main fire burned five hectares, while the final fire was less than a hectare.
As those fires were coming under control, a sixth fire, in the Mast Creek area, sprang up on May 2. While that fire only grew to 26 ha, it was producing a dramatic column of smoke that was visible from town.
That fire was about 10 km west of town, but cooler weather over the next few days allowed crews to get it quickly under control.
Wildfires early in the season have become common over the last number of years due to something called the spring dip.
This is the period after the snow has melted, when the ground has dried out, but the vegetation has yet to start to green up, leaving needles dry.
Typically, according to BC Wildfire, wildfires decrease in May and June, then pick up in July and August.
The BC Peace region is coming off a couple years of below average precipitation which left most of the region experiencing drought conditions last year.
Above photo: Smoke from the Mast Creek fire rose dramatically over town on May 2. By May 3, the fire was under control and now is well and truly out.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
