4:30 p.m. update: The two biggest new fires in the South Cariboo are currently estimated at 150 and 50 hectares, according to Fire Information Officer Justine Hunse.
Fire C41703 (southwest of Canim Lake), originally estimated at 160 hectares, has been tracked and is now estimated at 150 hectares with 20 personnel on site, says Hunse. The fire behaviour on this fire is rank 1 and 2 according to Hunse, meaning a smouldering ground fire or a low vigour surface fire.
Fire C41707 (south of Hawkins Lake) is estimated at 50 hectares and staff are currently assessing the area and figuring out what the plan of attack is going to be, says Hunse. This fire is also experiencing rank 1 and 2 fire behaviour, according to Hunse.
Fire C41712 (northeast of Horse Lake), has had three rap-attack firefighters out there today with five more firefighters on route, says Hunse, who adds it’s estimated at one hectare in size.
Fire C41718 (the furthest southwest of Canim Lake) has received bucketing action today, says Hunse.
Fire C41710 (centre west of Canim Lake), was a smoke chase, meaning someone reported a fire but when BC Wildfire Service went to check it out it didn’t end up being anything, says Hunse.
Fires C41721 and C41722 (west of Ruth Lake) are spot fires, meaning they’re very small, and one rap-attack crew (three firefighters are working on those fires, says Hunse.
Fire C41711 (Timothy Lake area) may be a smoke chase as well says Hunse, as they’ve not found any evidence of a fire in that area.
Fire C41709 (Timothy Lake area) was worked on by a BC Wildfire Service crew today and is considered to be in a much better position, says Hunse.
“It definitely sounds like things are looking good on that fire out at Timothy Lake.”
Check the BC Wildfire Service map for the exact location of the fires.
Original story: After lighting came through last night, the Cariboo Fire Centre received a lot of phone reports of new fires starting, says Fire Information Officer Natasha Broznitsky.
“At this point on our wildfire map, we do have seven new fire numbers. This morning we’re going to assess whether all of those are in fact fires or whether some of those might have just looked like a plume of smoke or was actually a plume of fog or something very small that has since gone out. So we’re assessing this morning to ensure that they all are fires.”
Crews were on Fire C41703 near Canim Lake, says Broznitsky, with more resources on the way this morning.
Related: Canim Lake evacuation order expanded to include Eagle Creek and Hawkins Lake early this morning
“We don’t have a size estimate for it just yet. We’re going to wait until we can get a helicopter in the air and have a bit better size estimate but the crew leader did say that fire activity is looking really quiet on that fire this morning and that the ground is wet. So there is some good news there at least.”
Regarding fire C41699, listed just north of Highway 24, Broznitsky says they looked in the area last night but they weren’t able to find something there and they got called to one of the ones north of it.
“They did look in the area last night and they didn’t see too much but it was very smoky of course. So the plan today is to go back and assess. At this time I don’t believe there are any highway concerns.”