‘We’re trending the right way’: B.C.’s wildfire situation appears to have turned a corner

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – With no significant growth since Thursday, B.C.’s wildfire situation appears to be going in the right direction. As long as the weather keeps cooperating, more evacuees are expected to soon be allowed back home.

Todd Nessman, operations manager for the BC Wildfire Service, says some larger fires will keep burning into the fall, but “all things considered, we’re trending the right way.”

He says more progress is expected over the next seven to 10 days.

“We still have some elevated fire behaviour,” Nessman said. “Until we see some significant precipitation in the South Okanagan, Cariboo — there are a couple pockets in there that we do have underlying drought — and until we have a sort of end of season rain, there’s always that potential in some of these drought-like areas.”

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He says crews are feeling “reasonably confident,” as the scorching summer heat waves may be done for the year.

“We’re starting to see some of the effects of fall come in to help us and really, what we’ve seen is more fall-like patterns than traditionally August weather patterns, which has been really helpful for us and our operations.”

There are more than 200 wildfires burning across the province.

A new wildfire broke out Tuesday about 3km north of West Kelowna. The BC Wildfire Service initially estimated it ito be three hectares in size and said it would be “highly visible” from Kelowna and the surrounding areas.

The fire is estimated to be three hectares in size and will be highly visible from #Kelowna and surrounding areas.

— BC Wildfire Service (@BCGovFireInfo) August 24, 2021

Nessman says they are not expecting much more fire activity.

“All the signs are pointing towards a fairly stable environment. We’re not going to see the elevated conditions … we experienced even a week ago.”

Another problem has been firefighters in the South Okanagan testing positive for COVID-19, but Interior Health has confirmed fewer than 10 cases are active and all of them are isolated.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the BC RCMP says patrols in wildfire-affected areas have proven useful in stopping and deterring thieves. Dawn Roberts says police have stopped people who were in restricted areas.

“Those patrols are proving quite successful. We had one situation where we checked a vehicle and its passengers that were not to be in the area and weren’t even from the area. A subsequent search did locate break-in tools.”