With files from George Henderson, MyCaribooNow.com
The massive Hanceville-Riske Creek wildfire continued to grow over the weekend forcing several evacuations and evacuation alerts.
Fire Information Officer Marg Drysdale says it is now 193,894 hectares.
“We had high winds in the area and there were multiple areas where the fire did grow. The fire did take an approximately 16 kilometres on the northwest corner so that is something that is being dealt with at this time.”
Drysdale says it is listed at 25% contained.
They have almost 300 firefighters, 64 pieces of heavy equipment and 14 helicopters working on the fire as well as an additional 60 firefighters from Mexico and 300 Canadian Military personnel.
“The military’s role will largely be doing a lot of mop up so that in areas where our type-1 firefighters have gone through and done their work and we just need some extra manpower to help us with mopping up.”
Plans today include working along the highway corridor as Highway 20 remains closed due to the wildfire activity in the area.
This fire has forced the evacuation of Alexis Creek to Riske Creek, east of Tatla Lake to West of Alexis Creek, Highway 20 west of Hanceville to the Riske Creek area and Highway 20 to south of Tzenzaicut Lake.
The Alexis Creek Health Centre is also closed.