Mop-up, patrol duties underway as Kiskatinaw River wildfire enters critical response phase

Crews on the Kiskatinaw River wildfire, 58 km south of Dawson Creek are focusing on mop-up and patrol duties.

This is considered a critical phase of the response to make sure the blaze is contained.

Nathan Warren is a unit crew supervisor based out of Prince George told Vista Radio with no shortage of ground to cover, it’s important all the hot spots are taken care of.

“One thing I like to do is that if we do leave smokes on the edge, what if that ended up popping out and going on a run? It’s going to a cause a lot more time and a lot more damage to the environment and potentially values at risk – and it’s just a lot more work.”

“In the section and line we are working on right now, it’s a lot of spots in the green and a lot of trying to identify what the priority areas are – we can’t hit them all at the same time because we are limited in the amount of people and water that we have.”

He added the level 4 and 5 drought conditions in the Peace Region over the years has made their jobs more challenging.

“We have a lot of ground to cover on this fire. There has been a lot of crews going through here and doing a lot of good work with the resources that we have on the fire. When we all throw that together that is a lot of progress that we are making.”

The 26,372 hectare blaze, which has crossed into Alberta is currently being held.

An area restriction order remains in place – 103 firefighting personnel and 3 aviation units are responding.