This story has been deprecated; updates will now be posted at https://tumblerridgelines.com/2021/07/15/tentfire-creek-fire-grows-to-1700-ha/
Wednesday July 14-As temperatures have gotten hotter, BC Wildfire Service members are still cooling their heels, waiting for favourable weather to do a prescribed burn on the Tentfire Creek fire.
According to the Fire of Note page for the fire, everything is in place for the burns, but they’re still waiting on the weather.
The goal is to light controlled fires between the main body of the fire and the containment lines attack to eliminate the fuel in a controlled way. “This decreases the chance of the fire burning up to the containment line in an uncontrolled way and crossing or spotting over the containment line,” says B.C. Wildfire.
Heavy equipment is being used to shore up the existing fire guards, but some of the resources have been pulled to fight fires elsewhere in the province, as we crossed the 1000 wildfire on the year mark on July 13.
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. Currently, more than 300 fires are burning across the province.
There are now 8 pieces of heavy equipment—down from 13 earlier this week—and five firefighters on the fire, with one helicopter providing support.
Late last week, the wind blew a couple spot fires farther east, creating a network of three separate fires, pushing the fire up to 1000ha, or ten square kilometres.
While the fire has been creating lots of dramatic smoke today, it hasn’t been growing much over the last few days, and has been estimated at 1000 ha for the last three days.
Prevailing winds shifted earlier this week. Last week, the wind had turned, pushing the fire back on itself, which allowed crews to finish pushing fire breaks on the slopes above the Murray river and Tentfire Creek.
But the winds have shifted again, blowing north and east, pushing the fire back towards the newly created fire breaks.
The prevailing winds have also kept the Hook Creek wildfire under control.
That fire was blown to within a km or so of Kinuseo falls before the winds shifted. That fire has grown to an estimated 203 ha, up from 200 ha
A third fire, near Boulder Lake, has grown to 10.5 ha but is being held, according to the wildfire website. This is a new fire, different from the other fires that were reported in the area early in July. Those fires appear to have gone out on their own and no longer appear on the Wildfire Map. Instead, the new fire—in basically the same spot as the rest—was reported on July 9, and is suspected to have also been started by lighting.
Unseasonably warm weather is expected to continue to the weekend, when cooler weather and possible rain are currently in the forecast.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
