Emerald Lake wildfire 39 kilometres south of Williams Lake being actioned

BC Wildfire Service personnel continue to action the Emerald Lake wildfire that started yesterday (August 10).

“Today (August 11) we have 44 fire fighters, we have helicopters and air tankers being utilized as required.” Fire Information Officer Donna MacPhearson said, “It’s approximately 39 kilometres South of Williams Lake and there are no Evacuation or Alert Orders for this fire but it is visible from the communities of Dog Creek and Canoe Creek.”

MacPhearson said on the day when it was initially responded to, the fire was burning fairly actively at Rank 4 which is a a highly vigorous surface fire and growth of the fire was due to the hot, dry, windy conditions in the area.

MacPhearson noted by the end of the day the fire behaviour had dropped to about Rank 2 which is a low vigour surface fire.

Crews worked through the night of August 10th and today (Monday) they’re working along with heavy equipment to build control lines and more resources are on route.

“I do want to point out to the size increase,” MacPhearson said, “as of this morning (August 11) the fire was listed at 100 hectares in size on our website and now it’s 200. That’s about us being more able to see the fire itself. Yesterday there was a lot of smoke in the area that was hampering our ability to estimate it’s size so we were able to get a better look at it today.”