Despite winds of approximately 10-15 km per hour, with gusts of 30 km per hour, the Elephant Hill fire is seeing minimal fire activity today, says Fire Information Officer Erin Catherall.
“In terms of objectives today, we have our operational staff that are doing an in-depth assessment of the Hihium, Young Lake, Pressy Lake and Sheridan Lake areas,” she says.
Crews are continuing to work establishing containment along the perimeter of the fire, as well as working on mop up, patrol and actioning hot spots, she says.
“The cooler temperatures we have seen with minimal precipitation have helped in terms of fire suppression efforts. We continue to work up in the northern section with mop up and patrol and actioning any hot spots in the area,” she says.
She says winds are expected to become lighter into the evening, and precipitation is expected in upcoming days, although it has varied across the breadth of the fire.
The fire remains at 60 per cent containment, she says.
Crews are also working on danger tree assessments in the areas.
“A danger tree is a tree that could fall and has the potential to kill someone. So even though a tree may look fine visually when you are standing on ground, the roots could be burnt so we need to have professionals go in there and assess those trees and take down trees that are on crown land along road and highway corridors. With wind too, that’s a major concern because it could pull down those trees and it can have a domino effect of those trees falling.
“Life and property are our absolute number one priorities for BC Wildfire Service so when we have crews out working in these areas they need to go there and assess to make sure when they are out there doing patrol or doing mop up they are in an area that has been assessed and danger trees have been removed.”