9 p.m. update: Smoke visible across the South Cariboo today was largely from the Elephant Hill fire burning near Clinton.
“With the easterly winds that we had yesterday in the late afternoon and evening it pushed the fire down towards Bonaparte River and actually towards our containment lines,” says Fire Information Officer Claire Allen.
“The winds switched today to south southwesterly and those were actually ideal wind conditions for us to meet our objectives in the area,” she says.
The fire, although advancing down the hill, was pushed back upwards by those winds, resulting in a very slow creeping towards containment lines towards the Bonaparte River, says Allen
“That was the area we had planned to do some controlled ignitions in. Mother Nature kind of played into our hands there,” she says.
Combined with the fire’s natural movement, crews used aerial ignition from a helicopter to drop flammable material onto the fire to create a clean burning line, says Allen — something crews had hoped to create with a controlled burn anyways.
“Coupled with active wildfire produced naturally and our own controlled ignitions, it did produce quite a significant column of smoke,” she says.
“The whole purpose of that was to reduce fuels from the fire’s projectory and so really bring its growth under our control.”
Tomorrow, says Allen, the objectives are similar: “just to bring the fire under our control and bring it down to our containment lines.”
While Allen says controlled burning is not “surgical” and there may be occasional spill over containment lines, she says that there are adequate resources, night operations and 24 hour firefighters working on containment.
“It’s always a dynamic situation and where possible, where safe, we always send our resources in there to manage any slop over the containment lines.”
Over the coming days, she says expect to see more smoke as crews continue to clean up containment lines and remaining fuels in the fire’s trajectory to “contain aggressive fire behaviour and keep communities safe.”
While the fire is quite visible from the Big Bar rest stop north of Clinton, Allen says that Highway 97 remains open and unthreatened at this time.
“As far as I know, it is still on the other side of the Bonaparte River and has not crossed it.”
Related: Wind and warm, dry weather increase Elephant Hill wildfire.
10:30 a.m.: Strong and variable winds, as well as dry and warm conditions, caused the Elephant Hill wildfire near Clinton to increase in size and behaviour during the last 48 hours, says Fire Information Officer Claire Allen.
“Last night we did have some unexpected easterly winds and that caused the fire to be pushed over our containment line on the western flank of the fire,” says Allen. “It pushed the fire back onto the worksite so we pulled crews out of the area due to safety reasons and today we are reassessing how to control the excursion.”
The fire’s movement caused the BC Wildfire service to recommend that an area to the north east of Clinton evacuate. Clinton itself remains on an alert.
‘We do have ample resources allocated to the incident and especially in that area as it is moving towards the Bonaparte River but it has not crossed at this time,” she says.
“Last night the wind gusts were quite strong in the area but have changed direction and are predominately south southeast today so the fire, were it to grow due to wind, it will be pushed the other way.”
South and southeasterly winds would push the fire towards the north northwest, away from Clinton.
At this time, she says, Highway 97 is not being threatened by the fire.
“Given what we can see, we have not recommended any closures of the road at this time.”
BC Wildfire Service is also setting up a camp in the Clinton area, moving staff from Cache Creek. There will be a critical number remaining in the Cache Creek area, however, she says.
While smoke was visible for quite a distance due to the increased behaviour, Allen says this was not because of a controlled burn.
“I think some folks might have been concerned that the increased fire last night was due to controlled burns escaping and that is simply not the case,” she says.
“We only conduct controlled burns when it is completely safe to do so and when it is necessary to control an aggressive wildfire and given yesterday’s wind conditions, there was no controlled burning as it was too volatile and gusty.”
In the coming days she says the service will be assessing the opportunities and conditions to conduct controlled burns as a way to reinforce guidelines, but she encourages anyone who might be concerned as to what is causing the smoke to give BC Wildfire Service a call.
Related: Evacuations north east of Clinton