Prince George, B.C.- The Plateau fire,  which  is burning north of Highway 20, north west of Williams Lake and  west of Quesnel,   will go in the record books as the largest fire  ever known in B.C.

The fire,  which  is the result of 19 smaller fires merging,  has burned 467,461 hectares  so far. “There has been not much growth on this fire” says  Kevin Skrepnek, Chief Information Officer with the BC Wildfire Service “Activity is  certainly spreading smoke, but we are seeing limited spread and that’s good news,  and  that’s because of a lot of hard work on the ground and much more cooperative weather.”

There are  more than 416  firefighters, 28 helicopters   and 92 pieces of heavy  equipment working on this fire from two  different  incident command teams.

The second largest fire on record was in the high 200 thousand hectare range.

The Hanceville -Riske Creek fire is now estimated to have burned 227 thousand hectares , making it the third largest fire  on record in B.C.  This fire, saw some successful  suppression operations yesterday says Skrepnek ” We did  some planned  ignitions on the fire that went  quite well.”

The third major fire is the  Elephant  Hill  fire, burning north of Cache Creek.  This fire is now 35% contained,  and its size has been held to 168 thousand hectares “I am happy to say the size is static at 168 thousand hectares” says Skrepnek.  He says the  fire remains active but is  staying within  control lines at this point.

But,   everything could change, once again  later this week as  a cold front  is expected to  come through the  Province,  possibly  bringing gusty winds, and  may  bring some rain, although Skrepnek says  it’s difficult to say how much rain  may accompany the  system. “If that cold front is relatively dry we are likely going to see an increase in activity.”