Over the past week, the Prince George Fire Centre saw over 33 new wildfire starts, the vast majority of which have already been extinguished.
Currently, there are nine active blazes in our area, none of which are considered of note.
Fire Information Officer, Muhammed Tariq told Vista Radio the dry, hot conditions also led to a large volume of lightning strikes.
“Over the past week, the Prince George Fire Centre saw close to 25,000 lightning strikes. That was mostly over the weekend and across the Prince George and VanJam zones. We continue to monitor new starts and potential hold over fires. Not every lightning strike will result in a wildfire.”
“Also, with the unsettled weather and stronger winds and lightning activity, there is the potential for new wildfires to emerge given the significant amount of lightning we have received, we may see more holdover fires emerge as conditions become warmer and drier.”
The weather forecast for Prince George isn’t expected to see any relief until Saturday as four straight days of rain is being predicted for the northern capital with daytime highs bouncing between 18 and 21 degrees.
The largest blaze is the Muskwa River wildfire, 48 kilometres southwest of Fort Nelson. It is 50 hectares in size and is out of control.
The BC Wildfire Service is currently conducting an aerial assessment to evaluate fire behaviour.
Province-wide there are 85 active wildfires, five them are considered of note.
Three of them are surrounding the Boston Bar area, which has closed two major roadways Highway 1 and Highway 3 (closed at Manning Park). The only roadway connecting the Lower Mainland and the Interior is Highway 5.
The Anderson Creek wildfire, tripled in size overnight and is 4,332 hectares in size, burning south of the community of Hicks.
The Brunswick Creek wildfire, north of North Bend, is now an estimated 6,139 hectares in size. This blaze has two Evacuation Alert and 12 Evacuation Orders currently in place.
In addition, the Ainslie Creek wildfire, burning on the east side of the Fraser River, is the province’s largest blaze at 17,298 hectares.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
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