It's Raining Ash

Thursday, August 19, 2010 12:17 AM

Photo shows a light rain of ash floating down into Prince George this hour

Prince George, B.C. - It is not Christmas in August, and this is no present...

Ash is falling on the City of Prince George, as most residents sleep.

There was hope that the winds associated with Wednesday afternoon's cold front would help blow out some of the smoke affecting our air quality, but fire officials were raising more serious fears that those same gusting winds could fan the flames of existing fires into a frenzy.

Prince George Fire Centre Information Officer Joyce Poulin said earlier Wednesday afternoon that it would take officials time to get into the hot spots, once the weather system had cleared, to safely assess the 'new' fire situation created by the winds. Residents are being directed to www.bcwildfire.ca for the most up-to-date information.

Photo at left shows ash falling on vehicle windshield in Prince George just after midnight. Surprisingly, the hourly reading for fine particulates in Prince George is continuing to fall, click here for readings at the downtown monitoring station.

In the Cariboo Fire Centre, the City of Williams Lake and Cariboo Regional District have jointly scheduled two public information sessions for later today in the city's Council Chambers that members of the public are being invited to attend for updates on the fire activity skirting the city limits and the evacuation alert issued for property owners in the industrial subdivision on North Mackenzie Avenue. The first session runs from 10am until 11am, the second begins at 2pm.

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Posted on Thursday, August 19, 2010 12:17 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: DPJ on August 19 2010 12:49 AM

Very bad out there. Came home and the ash was everywhere in the house. Have closed all the windows now. Feel for the ones who are having health problems associated with the smoky conditions.

Posted by: gus on August 19 2010 4:38 AM

Last night when I was trying to access the AQ readings the map was missing all the cities along 97.

Back up now.

Readings are PM value; time; hourly average; 24 hour average

BCR PM10 - 1 am - 185; 124.1

Plaza PM2.5 - 3am 155.7; 95 approx (off chart)
Plaza PM10 - 3am 171.3; 128.7

Gladstone - no readings available for PM10 and PM2.5

The AQHI at 3am was 9 with forecast high of 10 for PG, Quesnel and Williams Lake.

Posted by: gus on August 19 2010 4:43 AM

BTW, Williams Lake reading is 213.2 hourly at 4am for PM2.5 and 223.7 hourly for PM10

Quesnel is 278.7 for PM2.5 hourly at 4am

Posted by: jales4 on August 19 2010 5:24 AM

Can you provide a link to the site?

Posted by: Born in BC on August 19 2010 6:28 AM

I blame the Liberals and the HST. The NDP would have had this problem corrected by now!

Posted by: PrinceGeorge on August 19 2010 7:13 AM

...by listening to the forestry ministry experts and not allowing the pine beetle infestation to escape from the park in the first place!

Posted by: He spoke on August 19 2010 7:45 AM

PrinceGeorge. I use to believe that story. But eventually Mother Nature would have wiped out our pine anyway. its all about the global warming, without it going down to 40 below, they keep multiplying.

So if it did not happen last decade, we would be in the middle of it now.

Of course, Alberta can thank Canfor for trucking it past the Rocky Mountains.

Posted by: govsux on August 19 2010 7:46 AM

So you are certain you coulda contained that beetle by logging around it? Laughable theory.

Posted by: seamutt on August 19 2010 8:14 AM

The bug started on a broader front than just the park. Just anather fiberal lie.

Posted by: interceptor on August 19 2010 8:16 AM

Someone needs to get a new windshield...

Posted by: kolberg on August 19 2010 8:40 AM

PrinceGeorge. The pine beetle has existed throughout the forest for as long as there has been a pine forest. It was not possible to contain the problem by clear cutting Tweedsmuir.

Posted by: Dragonmaster on August 19 2010 8:42 AM

"Of course, Alberta can thank Canfor for trucking it past the Rocky Mountains"

Not true. Although there were truckloads of beetle wood shipped out of province, the beetles flew over the mountains anyway.

Posted by: PrinceGeorge on August 19 2010 10:16 AM

The Ministry of Forests experts did indeed urge the government at the time to squash and burn the beetle infected area. So much for that. Of course, if one believes that the Ministry of Forest experts (the ones with the degrees) were completely wrong then the argument is dead.

So, I'll change my former statement to one that says: Good thing that the politicians did NOT listen. Yet, it is kind of disappointing that the ministry was staffed with ignorant experts.

Additional reading at the time convinced me that it would have been a very GOOD idea at least to have given it a good try!

Posted by: kolberg on August 19 2010 12:01 PM

PrinceGeorge. The reason for trying to "contain" the problem was to slow down the inevitable so that they could harvest the wood in a better condition and get more money from it. Not a bad idea. However, there was no chance to contain the pine beetles in Tweedsmuir.

The pine beetles are sort of like forest fires. There will always be fires in the forest. Hopefully they will be small. However, if the conditions are right there will be big fires. We fight the fires to try to preserve the valuable timber resourse and protect commnuities and buildings. We don't fight the fires because we think we can somehow beat mother nature.

Posted by: kolberg on August 19 2010 12:53 PM

Posted by: PrinceGeorge on August 19 2010 1:48 PM

Kolberg, in Alberta they have been actively logging and burning as soon as the beetle showed up. I would assume that the Alberta Ministry of Forest made the decision to go ahead and spend money and effort on it. They must be convinced that it does make a difference to the magnitude of the beetle problem.

In B.C. no effort was made, so we will never know if it would have slowed/arrested the spread enough to make a worthwhile difference.

It may have! If the experts thought so, who I am to argue?

You may be right in your opinion and I may be right in mine.

Hopefully a lesson was learned, especially by the non-expert politicians.