Fire season underway in Southeast Fire Centre

By Contributor

To date the Southeast Fire Centre has had 44 fires, which have burned 75 hectares. Of these 44 fires, 31 were person caused and the rest were caused by lightning. A few fires of note this season include: the 39 hectare fire that occurred on April 26 in the Lake Enid area (west of Wilmer), the 13.5 hectare fire in Wardner on April 3 and a fire at Greenhills Mine, that ignited June 26 (NW of Elkford). Most recent, a 0.5 hectare fire ignited 1.5 km up the Kokanee Creek FSR yesterday, July 15 at 3p.m. Caused by a tree contacting a power line, three initial attack crews quickly contained the fire and are currently on scene mopping‐up.

Prohibitions

 

As of July 5, 2010, all open fire besides campfires that are smaller than 0.5 by 0.5 metres are prohibited throughout the Southeast Fire Centre. Fireworks and burning barrels are also restricted.

 

Precautions

 

The Southeast Fire Centre is anticipating seasonal fire starts with the current warm weather. All preventable human-caused fires divert resources away from lightning caused fires, thus the public should remain especially cautious with

their campfires and other sources of heat.

 

Resources

 

This season the Southeast Fire Centre has 186 firefighting personnel and 62 support staff. Currently, four initial attack crews are enroute to assist the Prince George Fire Centre and one officer is deployed within the Cariboo Fire Centre.

 

Outlook

 

Today the Southeast Fire Centre is expecting isolated thunderstorms in the Columbia, Invermere, Arrow and Kootenay Lake zone regions accompanied with moderate winds. The highest fire danger rating levels reside within the valley bottoms and within the Invermere the fire zone.