There are now 67 wildfires burning across the Prince George Fire Centre, which has lead to multiple evacuation orders and one alert in the past week.
Active wildfires caused an evacuation alert for the Shesta Lake and Punchaw Lake area and an evacuation order for the Mount Porter area last night (Thursday).
The night before that, evacuation orders were issued for the Grizzly Lake and Cutoff Creek areas as well.
In total, there are 8 wildfires ‘of note’ that are either highly visible or pose a potential threat to public safety blazing across the Prince George Fire Centre.
Hannah Harris, Fire Information Officer at the Prince George Fire Centre, says the fire crews are being deployed rapidly to tackle the fires.
“The Shesta Lake Fires (#11925) and (#11920), they’ve seen a small amount of growth, approximately about 1 hectare between the two, the one fire is at about 11 hectares and the other is at about 5.6,” she explained.
Between the two fires, 30 personnel are working to control the blazes, five pieces of heavy equipment and three helicopters have been deployed.
However, Harris says the Grizzly Lake wildfire, located west of Punchaw and Shesta Lake is what prompted the evacuation order for the areas as the blaze has now grown to 4,600 hectares.
“It’s important to know that these fires (#1192) and (#11920) wouldn’t have prompted the alert on their own,” she explained, “the (Grizzly Lake) fire was causing a lot of smoke and it was impeding the ability to provide aerial support for Shesta and Punchaw.”
Meanwhile, the Cutoff Creek fire is another fire considered ‘of note’ by the BC Wildfire Service and has grown to 23,310.00 hectares.
58 firefighters, 17 structural unit protection personnel, 3 helicopters and 22 pieces of heavy equipment are being utilized to tackle the blaze, which is believed to be caused by lightning.
Additionally, 10 wildfires are currently blazing southwest of Prince George around the Ancient Forest area, including ones at Dodd Creek, Dome Creek, Slim Creek, and Kido.
Harris adds the rain that’s in the forecast for both Prince George and Vanderhoof could make an impact on the fires and fire suppression efforts.
“It could increase the ground moisture for the areas that aren’t currently impacted by the fire and of course that will lessen the potential for heat exhaustion for our firefighters compared to the 40+ weather we had earlier this month,” she said.
According to Environment Canada, both Prince George and Vanderhoof could see some lightning today (Friday) as well.
Harris says it’s too early to say exactly what kind of impact the lightning will have on the areas.