Wildfire concerns grow amid wind event in northern B.C.

While conditions have seen some improvements in parts of southern B.C. due to recent rain and cooler temperatures, the wildfire service says it’s expecting increased fire behaviour in the north this long weekend.

Fire information officer Pedro Roldan-Delgado, who works with the Prince George Fire Centre, says winds could hit up to 80 kilometres an hour in some areas.

“With the heat and the lack of precipitation that we’ve had in the last couple of days, that makes the combustibles on the ground dry,” he told CityNews. “There is a fire that’s already burning, with these high winds, what it does is it increases the rate of spread … So we might see some more smoke in the air or some fires that weren’t as active and presumed contained just might see higher activity within this weekend.”

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Roldan-Delgado says ongoing drought conditions and higher-than-average seasonal temperatures have led to increased fire growth in recent days. These conditions are expected to persist through the weekend.

“Within our zones, we do have people on this weekend just in case we do need to action any of the new growth or fire activity within our older fires. If anything were to come that’s new, we would be able to put resources on those fires,” he explained.

The BC Wildfire Service said Thursday that it was “anticipating increased fire behaviour on a number of incidents in the Northwest and Prince George fire centres” due to the wind through to Saturday.

Wind warnings are in place for those two regions, with the province saying “strong and gusty westerly or southwesterly winds” are moving in from the Yukon.

There are currently three wildfires of note in the Prince George Fire Centre — the Whitefish Lake fire, the Great Beaver Lake fire, and the Greer Creek fire. Dozens of out of control blazes are also burning in both the Prince George and Northwest fire centres.

A map showing the locations of wildfires in B.C. as of Sept. 1, 2023. (Courtesy BC Wildfire Service)

With many heading out of town and staying within B.C. for the Labour Day long weekend, the provincial government is reminding travellers to follow fire bans and restrictions, and to keep up to date on evacuation orders, alerts, and BC Parks closures.

Signs of a wildfire can be reported through the BC Wildfire App, at 1-800-663-5555, or *5555 on a cell.