Crews continue to work non-stop to contain the Donnie Creek wildfire, southeast of Fort Nelson.
It is roughly 175-thousand hectares in size and remains the only blaze of note in the Prince George Fire Centre.
97 firefighters and 19 pieces of heavy equipment, including ten helicopters are being utilized.
Fire Information Officer, Marg Drysdale told Vista Radio the blaze is being classified as a “project fire’ given its sheer size.
“So, this fire is going to continue to be worked on for a period of time. It is an extremely large fire and the estimated size as of now is around 175-thousand hectares.”
Drysdale adds they have not requested any additional firefighters from South Africa or the United States.
“We are not at this time. We are holding our own with this fire we do have a number of BC Wildfire Service Unit Crews who are available to us so we are staffing it up with our own people.”
She says weather conditions seem favorable this weekend and planned ignitions have been ongoing throughout the week.
“Some growth will be projected due to the planned ignitions but we are very confident we are getting some very secure lines and if the weather holds as it is, we are very optimistic.”
“We had a very large planned ignition yesterday where they solidified about 30 kilometres of the line along the southern or southwest flanks of that fire. They worked very diligently and were able to solidify the line. It went from Cold Creek along Tommy Lakes Road and then to Beatton West.”
Drysdale added there is still lots of smoke in the area but it should dissipate with the rain and cooler conditions in the forecast.
Province-wide, there are 56 wildfires burning in BC, 38 of which are in the PG Fire Centre.
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