With files from George Henderson, MyCaribooNow.com
It has been an unprecedented wildfire season in the Cariboo on many fronts, including the number of rank 5 and 6 fires we’ve had.
Mike McCulley is a Fire Information Officer with the BC Wildfire Service.
“When you see that type of fire behavior really the life of people and first responders become a top priority and simply moving out of the way is all you can do. We see these fires running 20, 30 and 40 kilometres some days, making long runs, very challenging, moving very fast.”
McCulley says there’s not a lot you can do to suppress a fire like that.
He says rank 6 fires, which are the most intense you can get, are the result of extremely dry conditions combined with high winds.
McCulley says the fire tends to burn most vigorously in the late afternoon but what they are finding this year is that it is starting earlier in the day.
He says fires like the Plateau wildfire and the Hanceville-Riske Creek wildfire are now so big that it will take a significant season ending event to put them out, either snow or 100 millimetres plus of rain, neither of which are on the radar right now.