WATCH: Mounties have determined that the Little Bobtail Lake wildfire was human caused, but they can’t yet say whether it was accidental or intentional. Jen Palma reports.
PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. – An unexpected spike in wind has spoiled the prospect of better firefighting conditions in British Columbia’s Central Interior, where crews are struggling to make headway against the first major blaze of this year’s fire season.
B.C.’s Fire Management Branch welcomed Monday’s forecast of cooler temperatures and lighter winds in the fight against the Little Bobtail Lake fire, about 70 kilometres southwest of Prince George.
But favourable wind conditions had waned by the afternoon, prompting the blaze to grow to 250 square kilometres — a jump from Sunday’s estimated size of 240 square kilometres.
“It’s a complex fire,” said Peter Goode of the Fire Management Branch on Monday, speaking by phone from the crew’s base camp about two dozen kilometres south of the flames.
“It’s unpredictable because of the wind.”
Goode listed several other factors that have contributed to the fire’s complexity: different types of wood, a mixture of harvested and unharvested areas, swamps and the intermittent presence of snow.
The fire burning within half a kilometre of the southwestern shore of Norman Lake is only 15 per cent contained.
Crews managed to raise the containment level to 20 per cent this weekend, but due to heavy winds and aggressive fire behaviour, some of that progress was lost.
Currently, 270 firefighters, 13 helicopters, 22 pieces of heavy equipment and eight air bombers are involved in battling the fire.
The fire is still moving away from the Cluculz Lake and Highway 16 area.
Eighty people are still under evacuation order as the result of the fire.
BC Parks has closed Dahl Lake Provincial Park and Bobtail Mountain Provincial Park to all recreational users and has ordered the evacuation of any users within the park.
The RCMP said they believe the fire was human caused and have pinpointed where the blaze began, though investigations are still underway to determine its exact cause.
-with files from Canadian Press
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