A large wildfire in B.C.’s Shuswap region was downgraded in size on Saturday.
Located around 20 kilometres north of Chase, the Lower East Adams Lake wildfire was downsized to 1,821 hectares from an estimated 2,000 hectares.
The Columbia Shuswap Regional District said the new sizing is a result of more accurate fire mapping.
“The fire along the southern flank is not showing any significant growth towards populated areas,” the CSRD said on Saturday.
The blaze was first spotted on July 12 and is thought to have been sparked by lightning. It’s also still deemed to be out of control, though the regional district says the fire is showing reduced demeanour with Rank 1 and 2 behaviour.
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“These are the lowest levels on the wildfire ranking scale and indicate a smouldering ground fire,” said the CSRD.
BC Wildfire says the fire is being managed by an incident management team that’s been assigned to the Adams complex wildfires (Rossmore Lake, Lower East Adams Lake and Bush Creek East).
Eight helicopters are assigned to the zone, with nine pieces of heavy equipment battling the blaze.
Structure protection crews are also deploying and testing a mass-water delivery system if needed.
The fire has spawned evacuation alerts from the Adams Lake Indian Band, the CSRD and the Thompson-Nicola Regional District.
The regional district added that Shuswap residents may experience increased smoke this weekend and into next week from the northwestern and western flank of the Lower East Adams Lake fire, as well as others burning in the region.