Wildfires of note in the Prince George Fire Centre      map courtesy of BC Wildfire Management Branch

Prince George, BC – The Prince George Fire Centre will be watching the northeast corner of the province carefully over the next few days to see what the hot, dry weather spells for the wildfire situation.

Fire Information Officer, Jillian Chimko, says the fire danger rating is extreme in the Fort Nelson Fire Zone.  She says the fire centre is currently dealing with six active wildfires – all within that zone – with a couple being actively monitored, but not responded to, and the two fires within the Capot-Blanc Complex being fully actioned and suppressed.

Chimko says an Incident Management Team and approximately 60 firefighters are dealing with the Capot-Blanc fires, which cover approximately 4200-hectares.  "There are infrastructures in the area, so we do have four structural protection units set up – there’s a drill site, a camp, a switching station, and different oil and gas infrastructures."

"As of right now, there’s no evacuation alerts in place," but the fire information officer adds, "We do have a camp that chose to evacuate, but that was a choice they made, they weren’t being immediately threatened.  At this time, those infrastructures aren’t being threatened and we are building guard on the sides closest to the areas of value."

Another 12 initial attack crews, three-person crews, are also in the area. "As of right now, we have as many people up there as we need," says Chimko.  "And we’ll assess as we get this drying-heating trend that is predicted to see if anything amounts from it and then bring up more, as necessary."