Siphon Creek fire – photo courtesy BC Wildfire Service

Prince George, B.C. – Little relief in sight for wildfire crews in the Peace.

Amanda Reynolds with the Prince George Fire Centre says in the past 24 hours the region has seen seven new fire starts.

“As of today, we have currently 89 fires burning in B.C. and 51 of them are in the Peace region.”

She says eight of those are fires of note, the largest being the Beatton Airport Road fire which is now estimated at 9,500 hectares in size.

Reynolds says the 9,000-hectare Siphon Creek fire is now approximately 2 km from the Alberta border and could cross over today.

There are also currently four evacuation alerts in place for the following areas:

Mile 80 of the Alaska Highway, Beaton Airport Road, the Siphon Creek area in electoral area B and 2 km north of the Doig River First Nation.

A fifth evacuation alert, for the Goodlow area in electoral area B, was rescinded just before noon today.

Reynolds says the the majority of over 400 wildfire staff and 140 contract crew firefighters are currently in the Peace area.

She also says most of these fires are under investigation but notes “initial indicators show that these are human-caused fires.”

Reynolds adds wildfires to date in the Prince George Fire Centre remain way ahead of last year’s pace.

“As of today, we have had 92 fires and 22,753 hectares burnt. At this time last year, we had 19 fires and 76 hectares burnt.”

She says the weather forecast isn’t currently working in their favour either.

“The BC Wildfire Service is expecting a sunny day with temperatures in the mid-teens and we do anticipate another day of windy conditions.

“And there is no significant relief in the forecast in the near future. We may see some spotty precipitation on Sunday but it’s forecast to return to seasonable weather conditions with no precipitation.”