6 p.m. update: The South Canim Lake fire has not seen much movement today, says Fire Information Officer Kylan McKeen.
“It’s nowhere near the community and there’s still no threats to any assets at all,” he says.
The portion of the fire that escaped yesterday remains at 75 hectares as well, he says.
He says those working on the fire are hoping to have the area contained tonight.
“We’ve had lots of crews down there, we’ve had aerial support as well and heavy equipment in there.”
‘From our understanding, it’s not pushing anywhere at all, it’s just being contained in that south area.”
While some of the smoke in the area is coming from that fire, he says that at the moment the smoke is coming from several fires, including the Hanceville fire and the Elephant Hill fire.
Winds that have predominately been pushing south are expected to change to push northward tomorrow, however.
“There is always concerns when it comes to the winds and the weather,” he says, and crews will be analyzing and reacting to it as it changes. and we have our fire behaviour analyst on
“Tomorrow the weather is expected to be quite hot again, so it is picking up. That could obviously change, but that’s an area of concern for us as well.”
Related: Official evacuation order for South Canim Lake
Original story: The section of the South Canim Lake fire that reignited yesterday is now 75 hectares in size, says Fire Information Officer Kylan McKeen.
“It has fallen outside of the guard so we’ve got the operations people down there today, all our crews down there today,” he says. “It’s a priority fire so they’re going to be working on that to contain it today.”
McKeen says the fire is moving southwards away from the Canim Lake area and that there are no threats to assets currently.
There are three helicopters working on the fire, five pieces of heavy equipment and 43 firefighters working on it currently, according to McKeen, with more resources to be allocated to the fire later today.
Activity on the fire did prompt tactical evacuations last night for some residents south of Canim Lake just after midnight.
Emergency Support Services, including group lodging, is available at the Hillside Community Church, formerly known as the Bethel Church for evacuees from Canim Lake. Those evacuated from south of Highway 24 can still receive ESS support at the curling rink.
“Residents who were immediately threatened were tactically evacuated early this morning” says Emily Epp, manager of communications with the Cariboo Regional District
She says the CRD is working with the BC Wildfire Service this morning to determine if an official evacuation order is required.