Prince George, BC – Mother Nature sparked a host of new forest fires this past week in the Prince George Fire Centre, mainly in the northeast corner of the region.

Fire Information Officer, Jillian Chimko, says 16 new fires started last Monday – all believed to be caused by lightning – and, by Friday, that number had grown to a total of 25.

Chimko says the largest fire burning is just over 31-hectares, with a few others spanning between 20- and 25-hectares, but none are of note – meaning no structures or values are being threatened.  "The majority of our fires are in remote locations," she says.  "A lot of them are a couple of hundred kilometres north of Fort St. John, or else they’re a hundred or so kilometres east of Fort Nelson."

While a call for a 19-person unit crew to head to Ontario was cancelled, the Fire Information Officer says, "We’ve done some re-locating within our Fire Centre.  Our unit crew from Prince George has actually moved up into the Fort St. John area to help fight the fires up there, but other than that, we have all of our unit crews within the Prince George Fire Centre."

Chimko says, so far, the season has been an average one.  She points out that there are typically ‘waves’ of lightning starts at this time of year, followed by precipitation that helps slow things down – a pattern that generally marks the start of the summer season.