Slash piles burning in the South Cariboo caused some public concerns Wednesday night.
Fast wind picked up near 70 Mile House and blew large amounts of smoke around the area and across Highway 97.
“We had a controlled slash burn that was right off the highway,” explains 70 Mile House Chief Lee Lundy.
“It didn’t get out of control but a lot of people thought it was a forest fire. It was not a forest fire, it was completely in control, and it was just the smoke and the embers that got people panicking.”
Chief Lundy also confirms volunteer firefighters attended the scene and started to direct traffic.
“The highway was never shut down at any point; we just had to slow the traffic down through the smoke zone.”
The public expressed concerns of the slash burn as a forest fire given the unprecedented wildfire season last summer.
– with files from Chris Adams, My Cariboo Now
OPEN – #BCHwy97 Dense smoke and limited visibility at #70mile near Old Caribou Hwy. https://t.co/qVsrO9EISv
— Drive BC (@DriveBC) January 18, 2018