Crews battle the Wesley Ridge wildfire near Coombs, B.C., on Sunday.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
Light rain and higher humidity in British Columbia have briefly tempered wildfire activity, but hotter temperatures in the forecast appear poised to create new challenges.
Cliff Chapman, director of wildfire operations with the BC Wildfire Service, said a drying trend starting this weekend is expected to cause the southern half of the province to “heat up again,” raising the wildfire risk.
“There is no place in B.C. this year, and frankly, probably any year, that is going to be safe from the threat of wildfires,” Chapman told a news conference Wednesday.
“In terms of the rest of August and even into September, I wouldn’t say there’s anywhere in B.C. that I would say there’s no hazard left there.”
Chapman said the northeast corner of the province, which has dealt with the brunt of B.C.’s wildfire season for several years, has missed out on rain that’s been seen elsewhere and continues to be an area of concern for fire.
And the places that have seen some rain have not seen enough.
“What it does is it resets our conditions, but only at a very micro scale,” said Chapman, explaining that the reprieve gives crews a chance to attack fires at their edge.
“It gives us the ability to do that, but it doesn’t knock down the hazard for the whole province for the rest of the fire season.”
Chapman said recent fire seasons in B.C. have not seen the kind of large “season-ending rain event” that would snuff out the last of the blazes and crews have been left to rely on seasonal shifts from summer to fall and fall to winter.
About 120 wildfires are burning across the province, roughly double the number from last week, when hot and dry weather combined with thousands of lightning strikes to spark dozens of new blazes.
But there have been some gains, with 160 fires declared out in the past week.
In the Fraser Canyon, an evacuation order issued by the Lytton First Nation due to the nearby Cantilever Bar wildfire was rescinded after firefighters reclassified the blaze as being held on Tuesday.
Evacuation alerts issued by the Lytton First Nation, the Thompson-Nicola Regional District and the Siska First Nation were also lifted for areas around the fire.
B.C.’s emergency information agency still showed an active evacuation alert issued by the Skuppah Indian Band. The community could not be reached for an update.
There are approximately 400 homes under evacuation order and 700 under evacuation alert in the province.
The vast majority are related to an out-of-control fire burning on the north shore of Cameron Lake on Vancouver Island, about 60 kilometres from Nanaimo.
Firefighters have said the cooler weather was helping their efforts.
An update posted by the BC Wildfire Service said crews made “excellent progress in suppressing fire activity in residential areas” on Wednesday.
The update said light rain fell on the fire Tuesday, allowing firefighters to expand containment, while night-vision helicopters were set to work the fire’s perimeter overnight.
Environment Canada’s forecast for the region predicts daytime highs of 29 C on Saturday and 33 C on Sunday.
Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene encouraged people to stay alert and prepared during the fire season, saying that includes having a household emergency plan.
“We know that we still have challenging weeks ahead for this year’s wildfire season and the province remains committed to supporting people,” she told Wednesday’s news conference.