Wildfires near Pitt Lake, Merritt spring up Sunday

The job of B.C. wildfire crews grappling with an early start to the fire season got a little tougher this weekend.

Two new wildfires sprung up Sunday afternoon, amid persistent hot, dry conditions across the province.

The BC Wildfire Service says the larger of the two fires is burning along the Chattaway Lake Forest Service Road, about 27 kilometres northwest of Merritt.

That fire is about eight hectares in size, and is producing a large volume of smoke visible from as far away as Kamloops.

Fire information officer Brenna Ward said currently the fire is not threatening any structures.

“The fire is in the trees, but it is a surface fire at the moment, so most of it is what we call “rank three” fire behaviour, so that is kind of on the more vigorous end of a surface fire,” she said.

“There are pockets where it is exhibiting rank four fire behaviour, that’s where you’re going to see the candling of trees.”

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Ward said eight firefighters are on scene and a request for more resources has been logged. Six helicopters are also on scene assisting.

The second fire is burning closer to the Lower Mainland, about eight kilometres north of Pitt Lake.

Fire information officer Jeanne Larsen said the fire is not threatening any structures, and is burning in a remote, hard to access area.

“It’s burning in old-growth timber, there are no structures currently threatened and no evacuations,” she said.

“We have a response officer, there’s RCMP on site, we do have a medium-lift helicopter bucketing at this time.”

Larsen added that getting ground crews in will be challenging, with only boat and air access to the area.

She said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.