Fire officials seemed hopeful on Tuesday regarding the province’s wildfire situation.
During a daily press conference, officials from BC Wildfire and Emergency Management BC noted a downturn in the number of daily fires courtesy of cooler temperatures.
There are currently 246 active wildfires burning across B.C., with 23 being dubbed as wildfires of note — a downturn from the mid-30s earlier this month.
Of the wildfires of note, 14 are in the Kamloops Fire Centre.
“One thing I’m happy to report is we haven’t been any significant growth over this last period, since our last update call on Thursday,” said Todd Nessman, feature BC Wildfire Service fire operations manager.
“We’re starting to see some alerts and orders to drop and we’re making some excellent progress in a lot of our large fires and complexes.”
The number of hectares burned was cited at 863,000, along with 25 states of local emergency.
There are also currently 54 evacuation orders across the province, affecting 3,782 properties; and 111 evacuation alerts, affecting 12,825 properties.
Nessman said BC Wildfire expects to see continued downsizing “of several key assets,” such as helicopters, air tankers and structure protection personnel.
“That’s an indication that things are progressing well on fires,” said Nessman. “So in terms of the outlook, we’re feeling reasonably confident moving into the end of August.
“We’re starting to see some of the effects of fall come in to help us. And what we’re seeing is more fall-like patterns than traditionally August-like weather patterns, which has been very helpful for us in our operations.”
“So in terms of the next seven to 10 days, we really don’t see any significant heating coming into effect,” said Nessman. “Which, again, is beneficial and will result in lower fire behaviour.”
For more information about provincial wildfires, visit BC Wildfire.