A holdover wildfire near the town of Fort Nelson is no longer being held and is now listed as “out of control.”
According to the BC Wildfire Service, fire activity is increasing in the North Peace Complex due weather conditions in the region.
“We do have an uptick in burning conditions, meaning that we have hotter, drier, and windier conditions we’ve seen in recent days, which allows the fire behavior to increase, and we do see more significant fire growth under those conditions,” said David MacKinnon, information officer at the North Peace Complex with BC Wildfire Service.
“There have also been several new fires that started at the north end of the Patry Creek Fire, between June 29 and July 1. And those fires, some of them, have actually grown to merge with the Patry Creek Fire, meaning that the perimeter of Patry Creek is now larger than we had anticipated it would be while it was under being held status.”
MacKinnon says there are 103 ground personnel, 23 helicopters, and two pieces of heavy equipment currently in use to fight this blaze.
The service says the fire, which is now over 70,000 hectares in size, does not pose an immediate threat to Fort Nelson.
“The closest part of the Patry fire to Fort Nelson is still 20 kilometres away, and it’s downwind of the town as well,” MacKinnon said. “So we don’t anticipate growth towards Fort Nelson. The town is secure.”
He says that it is possible the wildfire will affect the nearby highway.
“It is possible in the coming days that we may need to look at temporary closures of Highway 77,” he said.
“However, at this time, that is not an imminent threat that would require the fire to change and to continue to grow fairly aggressively.”
MacKinnon says the service doesn’t expect to see the conditions that would allow it to extinguish the fires in the area anytime soon.
“Certainly through the summer, we will be working on these fires until the fall and and right now, what we’re hoping for is that we don’t have any new fire starts that present problems closer to towns or critical infrastructure values,” he said.
The outlook isn’t all bleak, however.
“Despite the increase in fire behaviour, we are in pretty good shape in the North Peace Complex,” he said.
“There’s no cause for immediate concern.”
There are currently 88 active wildfires across the province, with five of them started within the last 24 hours. Sixteen fires are listed as “out of control.”