A fire burning on the edge of a lake in B.C.’s Southern Interior appears to be drawing the water version of highway rubberneckers.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Marble Point fire is estimated to be one hectare in size. It’s located approximately 8.5 kilometres north of Sicamous, near Marble Point at Shuswap Lake Marine Provincial Park.
No structures are being threatened, but that’s not what concerning BC Wildfire at the moment.
On its Twitter account, BC Wildfire said “we’ve had issues with boaters interfering with firefighting aircraft on Shuswap Lake. This is dangerous, both to the public and to our personnel, and interferes with critical firefighting operations.
“Please stay away from active wildfire sites on the ground, and on the water.”
An aerial photo of the fire shows smoke billowing up from the blaze near the lake’s edge, along with several boats in the vicinity.
BC Wildfire has made several appeals in the past for boaters to stay away from fire areas.
In 2018, for example, BC Wildfire said boaters on Okanagan Lake were interfering with water-bucketing operations from helicopters and skimmers.
“Late in the afternoon we had the skimmers out on the lake again and RCMP had to manage the boats to ensure that we could continue with our fire suppression efforts and that there wasn’t an incident,” BC Wildfire told Global News on July 29, 2018.
Currently, 25 firefighters are responding to the Marble Point fire.