Rain and cooler weather have been providing much-needed relief to those on the front lines of the Prince George Fire Centre.
Fire Information Officer Davin Richmond confirmed to My PG Now that 38 fires have been extinguished in the area over the last three days since the rain started.
“It has allowed our suppression staff to have increased initial attack success on some smaller fires that were detected in the last week or so,” he explained. “It is also slowing the growth of larger, sustained action fires.”
He mentioned the rain does bring some challenges to firefighters, saying soil around trees and roots that have burned is more likely to erode and can make movement for both machines and personnel more challenging, but the benefits well outweigh the headaches.
The rain came at a good time, following the storm on Thursday (July 20) that saw over 2,500 lightning strikes.
“Since Thursday, we have experienced over 38,500 lightning strikes in the Prince George Fire Centre,” Robinson said. “Since Thursday, we have detected or reported 95 new wildfires.”
Currently, there are 196 active wildfires in the Prince George Fire Centre, by far the most of any region in the province. Across BC, over 1,505,491 hectares have been burned – now well beyond 2018’s previous all-time high of 1,354,284 hectares.
1,317,626 hectares have burned in the Prince George Fire Centre – almost single-handedly toppling the record.
The response to these fires has required an abundance of help from out of country.
Robinson said two Australian Incident Management teams, 100 firefighters from Mexico, and 75 from the United States.
From a smoke standpoint, Robinson said clear skies in Prince George should remain until the weekend, but “going into the weekend we are seeing a warming and drying again, and that could change in the coming week.”
The Fire Centre is still urging people to report potentially new wildfires.
You can do that by phoning 1-800-663-5555, *5555 on a cell phone, or through the mobile BC Wildfire app.