Vehicle fire along BC Highway 3 spreads; evacuation alert rescinded

An evacuation alert has been rescinded for about two dozen properties near a stretch of Highway 3 in inland British Columbia, where a vehicle fire appeared to have spread to nearby pastures and began burning a mountainside. .

Karley Desrosiers of the BC Wildfire Service said the fire started around 1 a.m. Friday, and although the service knew a truck had caught fire along the highway south of Cawston, the connection between the vehicle and the forest fire had not been officially confirmed.

Helicopters were supporting 34 firefighters to control the fire on the west side of Richter Mountain, he said, noting that it was burning between the locations of two previous seasons’ wildfires and slowing as it reached rockier terrain.

There was no imminent threat or concern that he would jump across the road, Desrosiers said.

The bushfire has so far charred about 30 hectares, he said, or about a third of a square kilometer.

To the north, Desrosiers said the situation is “relatively stable” around the Keremeos Creek wildfire near Penticton. The fire had not grown beyond its area of ​​67 square kilometers.

The Okanagan-Similkameen Regional District rescinded evacuation orders for properties around Keremeos and Olalla on Thursday, downgrading them to alerts, but the Apex Mountain ski resort and surrounding homes remain under evacuation order.

More than 300 firefighters are assigned to the fire, with crews focusing their efforts on hot spots around the perimeter identified during an infrared scan, Desrosiers said.

The most activity has been along the northwestern edge of the fire, he said.

Heading into the weekend, Desrosiers said conditions are expected to be a bit drier, but also cooler. Temperatures are forecast to rise again on Tuesday.

Wind has been the main driver of fire behavior lately, he said, and it’s not expected to pick up again until late next week.

Severe thunderstorms have been rolling inland, launching hundreds of lightning bolts into areas already classified as high to extreme wildfire risk.

Environment Canada’s thunderstorm watches remained in effect Friday for much of the southeastern interior, from the Similkameen region to the East Kootenays.

The wildfire service website shows 69 new fires in the past two days, including one suspected to be caused by lightning near Monte Lake, the same area where a massive wildfire destroyed homes last year.

New fires remain small, but more lightning is forecast for southern and southeastern BC

Environment Canada said that at the height of Thursday’s thunderstorms, Kamloops recorded a wind gust of 82 kilometers per hour. Gusts in Merritt reached nearly 60 kilometers per hour and the city was drenched by more than 23 millimeters of rain, causing some localized flooding.

Wednesday’s thunderstorms also brought heavy rain that triggered mudslides along the Trans-Canada Highway between Spences Bridge and Lytton, which was devastated by a wildfire last year.


This report from The Canadian Press was first published on August 12, 2022.


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