The day after 70 Mile House, B.C., residents were allowed to return to their homes after a sweeping forest fire, officials are sounding the alarm about what's shaping up to be an early and devastating season.
A new 125-hectare forest fire at Round Lake between Merritt and Princeton in B.C.'s Interior is just the latest in a series of major forest fires that have caught people off-guard and people fearing they might lose their homes.
"We had everything packed up and ready to go," Round Lake resident Paddy Lingenfelter said.
But the timing of the fires has even the forest service surprised.
"Generally speaking at this time of year it is valley bottom grassfires," Derek Williams of the B.C. Forest Service said. "Rarely are we up in that timber."
The blaze that ripped through 70 Mile House was so early that initially the air tankers that might have helped were not yet ready. And at Round Lake the fire grew with the kind of speed you might expect in late August -- not early May.
"It shows that things are extremely dry," Williams said. "Right now we're dealing with about 100 per cent cured grass. Dead grass from last year that's been pressed down from the over-winter snowpack and it's just like lighting a carpet on fire and it just races up the hill."
The effects of the mountain pine beetle and a light winter snowpack are partly to blame and it's too early for the added moisture that comes to the forest as things start to green-up.
"Everything is as dry as it could possibly get at this particular moment," Williams said.
It's believed the fire in 70 Mile started with some fishermen who let a campfire get away from them. With conditions this dry and the fire season coming so early, the forest service is renewing its plea for people to be safe with outdoor fires.
"There's snow on the ground and the individual might leave his campfire and the next thing you know we're chasing a fire up the mountain," Williams said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Kent Molgat
