B.C. highway temporarily shut down because of wildfire

As the wildfire service braces for a possible surge in fire activity in the days ahead, a wildfire in B.C.’s interior region closed a highway for hours.

The wildfire broke out Wednesday morning near Peachland, prompting the temporary closure of Highway 97 so crews could operate without interference.

“We did have air tankers and skimmers on site earlier supporting ground crews and they were very effective in cooling fire behavior with the retardant and water drops,” said Taylor Coleman, a fire information officer with BC Wildfire Service.

A helicopter was also dumping water on the flames.

“Crews are working from Highway 97 up the south and northern flanks of the fire doing a hose lay and working on constructing guard to limit the spread," Coleman added.

The fire, suspected to be human-caused, is about 1.3 hectares, however, it’s not immediately threatening any structures.

But near Spences Bridge, there’s an evacuation order issued by the Cook’s Ferry Indian Band as two wildfires burn out of control including the Shetland Creek wildfire.

“It’s burning in some really challenging terrain and the area it is covering is 285 hectares,” Coleman said.

There is concern that more fires could be sparked in the coming weeks and that current fires could spread.

“We are coming out of some really continued hot and dry weather and looking ahead to heat and more dry weather accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning,” explained Jean Strong of the B.C. Wildfire Service.

“We are anticipating new starts in different areas, as well as fires in those really hot and dry conditions tend to show more extreme, more aggressive fire behavior,” she said.

A 20-person crews from Nova Scotia is on the ground in B.C. and more supports are on the way.

“On Friday we’re also looking forward to welcoming our first wave of support from Australia and New Zealand,” Strong said.

So far this year, 613,000 hectares have burned in the province, though fire activity is not nearly as intense as last year.

“To this date in 2023 we’d easily passed a thousand fires. Right now we’ve had just over 500 fires,” Strong said.

Still, the fire season is a long way from being over and what Mother Nature may throw at B.C. is anyone’s guess.