Testalinden wildfire near Oliver now 50% contained

OLIVER – Good progress is being reported in fighting the Testalinden Creek wildfire south-east of Oliver.

And that’s despite the fire growing by about 900 hectares in the past day.

The big increase is mostly due to crews fighting fire with fire.

“We build a cat guard and start a fire to burn back towards the existing fire and that really strengthens our control lines,” says fire information officer Noelle Kekula. “We’re pretty happy with the results from the burn yesterday (Wednesday). But we only have 50 per cent containment so we want to do more burn operations before we can really feel we’re making some gains.”

Another controlled burn Thursday morning sent out a large plume of smoke which was very visible from Oliver.

Almost 120 firefighters, aided by air support and heavy equipment, are battling the 2500 hectare blaze.

“We do have crews and equipment working overnight so we’re actioning this fire night and day,” says Kekula.

The back-burn operations are expected to continue for several days, weather permitting.