The Prince George Fire Centre is down to two fires of note thanks to some rain in the Peace Region.
According to the BC Wildfire Service, the Red Creek and Stoddart Creek wildfires are now being held.
North Peace Complex Fire Information Officer, Forrest Tower told Vista Radio Mother Nature was very kind to them over the May long weekend.
“Anywhere between 40 and 70 millimetres of rain fell on different parts of our fires here. The larger fire, the Stoddart Creek the northern part of the fire received the higher end of the rain and a little bit less fell in the southern part near the Alaska Highway but it was enough precipitation that it significantly diminished fire behaviour across all of our fires.”
He adds while the rain has been beneficial it does pose a few smaller challenges.
“The rain has made access into some of the other fires quite difficult with muddy and slippery roads but we still have a large presence where we have a couple hundred people working in this complex and it will be that way for the next couple weeks.”
Another dry spell is anticipated for the upcoming weather forecast with daily temperatures reaching the low to mid-20s – Tower noted more work is ahead of them to keep the fires under control.
“We are looking at potentially another drying period where little to no precipitation is in the forecast and for the larger fires like Stoddart and Donnie Creek, they are large enough that it does take quite a bit more than the precipitation we received to extinguish them or have a very long-lasting effect.”
The largest fire of note in the PG Fire Centre is Donnie Creek, 136 kilometres southeast of Fort Nelson where its a shade under 136-thousand hectares in size.
Province-wide, there are 80 wildfires burning, 50 of which are in the PG Fire Centre.