Recent rain helps fire situation, but B.C.’s northeast not out of the woods yet, says BC Wildfire

The firefight in B.C.’s northeast has been helped in a big way by recent rainfall, according to the BC Wildfire service.

The province says seasonal temperatures and showery conditions across the province reduced fire behaviour and helped ground crews.

Provincial fire information officer Karley Desrosiers says both the Parker Lake and Patry Creek wildfires that threatened the town of Fort Nelson are no longer out of control. Patry Creek was downgraded to “Being Held” June 11, and Parker Lake was classified as being under control June 5.

Desrosiers says recent rains are helping crews get into hotspots within the fire perimeters.

“In the short term, it did significantly reduce fire behaviour,” Desrosiers told CityNews. “The lower fire behaviour does allow us to get in more closely and work in those priority areas where more heat is being identified.”

However, she says it will be a long time before we see a reduction in fire activity in the north overall.

“We are in a prolonged, extreme drought in the region, so in terms of long-term impacts, that amount of rain won’t have a significant kind of influence on long-term fire behaviour,” she said.

“The fire here continues to burn quite deep, so about three to six feet from the surface of the forest floor, which means they have to dig quite deep there to extinguish any of that remaining heat, and with the rain, it doesn’t always permeate that deep, so a lot of work to be done.”

Derosiers says a big help in the firefight around Fort Nelson has been the fact that there hasn’t been many fires in other parts of the province.

“That allowed us to focus a lot of our resources here. Crews have been working — especially around critical infrastructure like powerlines, major transportation corridors and properties to make sure the fire is extinguished in those areas. A lot of work has gone into getting the fires to a place where we’re able to change the status to being held and under control,” she said.

Desrosiers says the area is heading into its first drying period in a while with temperatures around 20 degrees. Fortunately, there’s not much wind expected. But toward the end of next Desrosiers says fire activity will pickup and more smoke will be visible in the Fort Nelson area.

“For folks in the area — especially travelling along those major transportation routes — there is a lot of fire on the landscape and it is going to continue to be quite visible for some time,” she said.

“We have a big presence here. But at this point, it’s just June. It’s going to be quite some time before we see a reduction in fire activity in the north overall.”