Over 20 millimetres of rain this past weekend helped stabilize the Kiskatinaw River wildfire in BC’s Peace region according to the wildfire service.
Fire behaviour analyst Neal McLoughlin stated via video the weather change was a welcomed sight and will buy crews some time.
“When we receive this amount of rain on a fire, it is going to take several days hot and dry conditions before our fuel moisture conditions recover and allow the fire to be active on the surface again. This change has given us the upper-hand for the next week to continue with fire suppression activities.”
“Northeast BC is experiencing several years of drought – the rain improves the firefighting conditions but it will not relieve us of the underlying drought. We are going to be watching over the next week as we get warmer temperatures building in for summer we are going to bounce back rather quickly.”
The blaze, 60 kilometres southeast of Dawson Creek is 26,623 hectares in size.
108 firefighters, 11 helicopters, 37 pieces of heavy equipment and 29 structure protection personnel are on scene as well as an incident management team.
McLoughlin noted northeastern B.C. has experienced years of drought, and while the rain improves firefighting conditions, the landscape is still receptive to fire.
Multiple evacuation orders and alerts issued by the Peace River Regional District due to the Kiskatinaw River wildfire remain in place.
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