Weather Posing More Challenges for Fire Fighting in Peace Region
Prince George, B.C.- The Beatton Airport Road fire is now estimated to be 12 thousand hectares and the weather isn’t giving fire fighters any breaks.
“The situation continues to worsen” says Minister of Forests Steve Thomson.
Chief Information Officer with the BC Wildfire Service, Kevin Skrepnek, says there is cooler weather on the way in the Peace for Sunday with rainfall, “If we do get a reprieve, it will be short lived” as it’s expected wind gusts tomorrow will be up to 60 km/h adding to the challenges and conditions are expected to return to being warm and dry early in the week.
There are 7 fires of note in B.C, all in the Peace Region.
There are 396 residences on evacuation alert or order in the Beatton Airport region. That would displace about 500 people.
A further 50 homes are under evacuation or alert in the area of the Siphon Creek fire which is about 17 thousand hectares in size and has moved about 2 kilometers into Alberta. Another 54 homes are on evacuation alert at the Doig River First Nations Reserve.
“Just about every crew that isn’t committed or resting up, is in the Peace region right now” says Skrepnek “all available air tankers have been deployed to Prince George, and there are several helicopters working the fires as well.”
This has been an usually brutal start to the fire season. Since April 1st, more than 30 thousand hectares have burned, that’s more than 20 times the norm for this time of year. There have been 213 fires so far this year, twice the number as was experienced during the same time period last year.
Minster of Forests Steve Thomson says it is discouraging that most of the fires burning right now were human caused ” To see the numbers and the fact that the majority of these were human caused, remains a sense of frustration, and that’s why we significantly increased fines, we’re going to be increasing our awareness and advertising and education around responsibility. This is a collective responsibility that everybody has to act responsibly and we are going to continue to communicate that (but) it remains a frustration.”
Comments
There is nothing “normal” about the forest fires in the Peace Region and Northern Alberta, these are climate change forest fires, and the size, intensity and duration of these forest fires will be the new normal.
The New Yorker Magazine, south of our border, has it right.
www .newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/fort-mcmurray-and-the-fires-of-climate-change
Spot on article , thanks . There’s one at thetyee today . They knew this fire was coming five years ago but instead of acting on the information , they cut the forest fire service over 14 million dollars . Austerity ? Good old boy Jimmie Prentice . What a great contribution he made . Hope he’s proud of his fire .
“213 fires so far this year”
“the majority of these were human caused”
What is it going to take for everyone to become vigilant and extra careful in and around our forests and grasslands all the time, but especially during hot, dry, and windy weather?
Education is not working.
Maybe the increased fines will teach some folks a lesson.
If they get caught.
If they are proven guilty.
Indeed, very frustrating.
metalman.
We could start the year off right and impose a fire ban now,and not wait till it is too late.
A lot of people would not agree with a total ban on open burning, but a ban would probably result in fewer human caused wild fires.
metalman.
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