Crews continue their attack on four fires of note in the Peace Region.
Fire Information Officer Amanda Reynolds, says with the recent weather they’ve had over the weekend, crews are making great progress.
“The Siphon Creek Fire is now 30% contained. We have 184 firefighters being supported with 8 helicopters and 8 pieces of heavy equipment. Crews are continuing to work on that fire and there are plans to do some planned ignitions in order to burn some fuels that are in that fire.”
Reynolds adds that the Beatton Airport Fire is now estimated at 15,000 hectares and is 45% contained.
Williams Lake Fire Des Webster meanwhile returned home Monday after being called to the area 40 km north of Fort St John with a five man structural protection crew to put sprinkler protection on buildings that could be in the path of an advancing forest fire.
“There was one point that we were going up to protect one farm house and we actually got pushed back by the fire. We had to turn around and had to come out because the fire advanced fairly quickly on us and we couldn’t do anything with the house. Fortunately, the house survived…”
Webster says although they didn’t take any equipment with them, the Department has attended other fires within the province for several years with their self contained sprinkler unit that can protect up to 24 structures.
“We’ll find out later this week, if the deployment is going to continue,” he says. “If it does continue, then some of the crew up there are going to time out for their 14 day maximum time span and we’ll just send the crew up there to replace them.”
Reynolds says the cause of the four fires-the Beatton Airport Road, Siphon Creek, Carter Road and Halfway River fires, are under investigation.
Evacuees where allowed to return home Sunday.
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