Williams Lake, B.C. – Mother nature has been helping fire suppression efforts across the province, including just west of Williams Lake at Puntzi Lake.

“The fire received approximately 12 millimeters of rain over the weekend,” said fire information officer Emily Epp. “The 8,000 hectare wildfire remains at 30 percent containment on the south west flank.”

Evacuation Order and Alert map – courtesy CRD

In the meantime 70 properties remain under Evacuation Order and another 149 under Evacuation Alert (plus another 300 First Nation residents under Alert at Tsi Tsi Del).

Rain has also assisted firefighting personnel in other areas of B.C. though a province-wide campfire ban remains in place.

“As of right now that campfire ban is status quo and we are continuing to monitor conditions on a region by region basis,” said Navi Saini with the BC Wildfire Service.

She added there are currently 221 active wildfires in the province, 13 of which were sparked by lightning yesterday.

To date this season, Saini said there have been 1,073 fires at a cost of nearly $108 million.

She said that’s significantly higher than this time last year when there were 477 fires at a cost of about $44 million.