Monday Sept 5, 1500 hrs—Strong winds have driven the Bearhole Lake Fire north and east past Blackhawk Lake and to the edge of Highway 52, which is closed between the Boot Lake and Redwillow Roads.
The fire—now an estimated 5231 ha UPDATE SEPT 6, now 5846—continues to move towards the community of Kelly Lake, which is now under an evacuation order.
The order extends four km west of the Alberta border and five km north and south of Kelly Lake. “The Evacuation Order has been issued for the Community of Kelly Lake due to immediate danger to life, safety, and health due to wildfire,” says the order. “Members of the RCMP, Search and Rescue and other applicable agencies will be expediting this action.”
Anyone in this area must leave immediately.
There are two Emergency reception centres. One is in Dawson Creek, the other in Beaverlodge. According to the Peace River Regional District—who issued the order—people who evacuate to Dawson Creek will be provided with lodging, food vouchers and other incidentals. People who evacuate to Alberta may or may not be reimbursed at a later date.
If you have been evacuated, the PRRD asks that you register at one of the centres, so people know you are safe.
According to the PRRD, the head of the fire is less than 18km from the community of Kelly Lake. “With the anticipated winds and expected fire growth this fire has the potential to be on their doorstep in a very short timeframe.”
While Highway 52 offers a notable firebreak, strong winds can blow sparks from the fire for many hundreds of metres—even kilometres. Indeed, it appears from the latest satellite data that the fire has jumped the highway. UPDATE: TUESDAY, SEPT 6, according to BCWS, that is probably just hot smoke on the map; there are no reports of spot fires on the east side of the highway.
Sarah Hall, who speaks for BC Wildfire Service says the aggressive fire behaviour is expected to continue. “Today, sustained westerly and southwest winds up to 30-35 km/h and gusts up to 60km/h are expected to significantly influence fire behaviour. Fire behaviour can pick up quickly with extreme winds and can result in very high rates of spread.”
This fire is classified as Out of Control.
She says there is one structural protection specialist and five structural protection personnel on the ground, focusing on the community of Kelly Lake. “In addition, a structural defence plan is developing with structure protection crews and fire apparatus.
There are 49 firefighters working the fire, one piece of heavy equipment, and a battery of 16 helicopters that are working a group of six major forest fires in the area called the Battleship Complex.
Bearhole Lake Incident Commander Scott Rennick says the winds will be challenging for the next few days. “We just can’t get in front of this with the wind like this. It’s just far, far too dangerous. What the strategy is now is channel and steer the fire as best as we can with aviation assets, like helicopters. What we have now is heavy equipment strike teams—mixed groups of bulldozers, excavators, feller buncher and skidders which are working on the flanks outside the park. They are not right up against the fire—which is still quite active—but they are building fire guards to keep the fire from expanding northward.
A second team will begin working on the south side of the fire doing the same.
He says if the wind calms down enough, they plan on burning the timber between these guards back to the fire. This leaves the fire with no fuel to burn, and, if done right, will leave the fire with nowhere to go.
Finally, he says, there is a team in Kelly Lake setting up fire protection equipment on houses, barns and sheds. “We’re working quite hard to get as many of these systems set up as we can, and crews are in the community ready to do what they can to protect the community.” However, he points out that safety for the crews is paramount, and if the fire is too aggressive, they’ll have to pull out the people, for their safety, though the sprinkler systems will remain up and running. “We don’t expect it to get to that,” he says, “but taking precautions here. We are prepared as we can be, and have a lot of resources on site.”
North of us, the Battleship Mountain Fire has forced the evacuation of residents west of Hudson’s Hope, though the town itself remains under an evacuation alert.
Update, Sept 6: The winds were not as strong yesterday as expected, allowing crews to make good progress on their objectives. Today, winds are expected to slightly weaken, however they will still remain in the light-to-moderate range. If the winds remain low, a controlled burn could occur today. According to BCWS, “this ignition operation is critical to secure the southwest corner of the fire before winds shift later in the week and will be coming from the west and northwest. This operation will be supported by crews on the ground, as well as aerial bucketing support and could occur as early as 11 a.m. today.”
Update, Sept 6, afternoon: the controlled burn did indeed happen today.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
