Despite the rain over the weekend, BC’s Largest ever wildfire is still far from out.
That from Natasha Broznitsky, a Fire Information Officer at the Cariboo Fire Centre.
She says the Plateau fire is now 80 percent contained and being “held” but it is a huge fire and people are going to see smoke for quite a while yet…
“Rain in amounts on the Plateau fire does really help to decrease the fire behaviour for a given length of time but even after receiving a significant amount of rain the fire that is burning below ground in the low areas of organic material can smoulder well into the winter months. In general, after a few days of dry weather following rain, plumes of smoke can begin reappearing with more frequency, particularly if it’s windy.”
Broznitsky says they are not working on identifying hot spots through infrared scanning and putting them out.
“We have members of the public reporting sightings of smoke and we appreciate that. They are reporting it within the interior of the fire and we do have crews on hand that are engaged in other work on the fire and they can go in and assess these reports and take action when necessary.”
The fire remains at 521,012 hectares.
With files from George Henderson, My Cariboo Now.