While tens of thousands of lightning strikes have started hundreds of new wildfires across the province in the past few days, the BC Wildfire Service is feeling OK about how the fire fight is going.
As of Wednesday, there are 430 wildfires burning across B.C., 112 of which started in the past 24 hours. Many of these were started by lightning storms that have hit many regions of the province.
Durning a wildfire press conference Wednesday morning, Minister of Forests Bruce Ralston said more than 70,000 strikes have been recorded in the past three days.
Some rain is expected in B.C.'s north in the coming days, but the forecast in the southern half of the province calls for continued dry conditions, although slightly cooler than it has been.
Acting executive director of the BC Wildfire Service, David Greer, says compared to the record-breaking fire season last year, 2024 is looking alright.
“We got some positive spring weather this year with some seasonal rains, which made a big difference for us, in the case that it gave our crews a chance to reset,” Greer said Wednesday.
“We had the spring rains but it has dried out quickly. But we've been able to get on the fires a little faster this year because of that, so that's the main difference.
“We're not out of the season yet so we'll see what happens, but even the cooling trends coming will again help us have a little bit of a pause, reset, and get ready to go again. So I'm pretty happy with the way things are going so far.”
Ralston added that “we're back up at a certain intensity,” but “we're doing well in terms of our response.”
There are more than 1,000 BC Wildfire Service firefighters deployed across B.C. now, and crews from Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, Yukon, Ontario and Nova Scotia are also assisting.
Ralson said about 140 airtanker missions were flown over B.C. fires this past week, 30 of which occurred in the past day alone.
There remains about 550 properties under evacuation orders, largely due to the Shetland Creek fire near Ashcroft, the Antler Creek fire near Wells, and the Aylwin Creek fire in the Slocan Valley.
During Wednesday's press conference, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Bowinn Ma thanked the people of Valemount, along with those in McBride, Prince George, Clearwater and Kamloops, for assisting evacuees from Jasper Monday night. She said the province would be supporting those small communities that incurred expenses during the evacuation process.
