Fire Centre urges continued vigilance; five spot fires near Castlegar
By Kyra Hoggan
The Southeast Fire Centre is dealing with five wildfires in fairly close proximity to Castlegar today, according to fire information officer Fanny Bernard.
The closest – and largest – is at China Creek, eight kilometres (km) west of the Columbia River. It’s roughly 0.6 hectares in size. There’s another near South Bear Paw Lake, in the Renata area west of Syringa on the other side of the lake. One west of Renata Lake is estimated to be 0.02 hectares, while one in Renata is 0.2 hectares. Finally, a fire up Bulldog Mountain is thought to be 0.009 hectares in size.
None of these fires are threating any buildings or infrastructures, and initial attack crews are dealing with them.
Bernard said cooler temperatures and high humidity, along with some minor precipitation, is helping reduce fire issues, but strongly cautions residents against educing high vigilance levels.
“The precipitation was very patchy; very spotty,” she said. “A lot of our weather stations are showing zero or less than 0.5 mm precipitation – so while you may have gotten rain, it could be tinder dry 50 feet away from you.
“It’s not enough in the long term to change fire behaviour or fire danger ratings – the fire fuel is still very, very dry.”
She urged people to be extremely diligent with cigarette butts, ATVs (don’t park a hot exhaust pipe over combustibles), etc., and reminded people that fire bans remain in effect across the region.
