“Quick and flashy.” That’s how the Forest Service describes a fast moving wildfire late Sunday afternoon near Princeton.
It didn’t force any evacuation alerts but the flames came uncomfortably close to one house.
“A bit scary,” says home owner Bob Stephens. “It moved around really, really fast. We were worried about trees candling. If they crown, ashes come over and down. We had four fire trucks here. They were really good.”
The fire raced through mostly open grasslands with a few, patchy stands of timber.
The Forest Service attacked it Sunday evening with 30 firefighters on the ground and a bucketing helicopter and five air tankers above.
The retardant lines played a key role in keeping the spread of the fire in check at 182 hectares. The fire is 70 per cent contained.
Crews stayed on site overnight with 27 firefighters working reinforcement around the fire perimeter with hose lines Monday, trying to make sure it doesn’t flare up and spread.
“What you see here is testament to the fact we still have, potentially, a lot of fire season ahead of us in 2014,” says Fire Information Officer Kevin Skrepnek. “Just because we are entering into the fall weather pattern doesn’t mean there isn’t a real danger of more fires starting.”
The blaze started right next to the back road between Princeton and Summerland and is almost certainly human caused.
Exactly how it was sparked is under investigation.
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