Wildfire crews in northeastern BC are keeping a close eye on any new starts as a series of lightning storms pelted the area this past weekend.
According to the BC Wildfire Service, over 10 thousand lightning strikes have occurred in the Peace Region since Friday (June 23rd).
The Donnie Creek wildfire, which is southeast of Fort Nelson and north of Fort St. John is nearing 575-thousand hectares in size.
Fire Information Officer, Nicole Bonnett spoke with Vista Radio.
“To put that into a little more perspective for people, it is larger than the size of Prince Edward Island – so you can imagine how variable the weather patterns will be for the entire Donnie Creek wildfire.”
“So, where one part might get rain, the other might not see any. So there is a localized impact on the precipitation is pretty hard to say. There is not going to be a broader landscape level effect of that precipitation on the Donnie Creek wildfire.”
She expects fire activity to ramp up with drier conditions forecasted this week.
Bonnett adds the Fort Nelson and East Peace regions are experiencing level 4 drought conditions, the second-highest rating on BC’s six-level scale.
“From my understanding, this area went into the winter already in a bit of a drought for this region and we are just seeing the cumulative effects of that moving into the spring and now early summer. The fire danger rating for most of the Prince George Fire Centre including this region ranges from moderate to extreme.”
“The potential for new fire starts is quite high right now. We are really just reminding everybody right now to be very mindful of their outdoor activity even if you are not utilizing fire there is still the potential for a fire to start. This can happen unintentionally if you are mowing your lawn and the blade hits a rock,” added Bonnett.
There are 98 wildfires in BC, 61 of which are in the Prince George Fire Centre- two are of note.