No growth is reported yesterday on the Elephant Hill fire which saw many areas receive some precipitation.
“We did see an overall dampening in fire behavior yesterday (Thursday) which really allowed our crews and heavy equipment to make progress on building some containment lines as well as some contingency lines,” says Fire Information Officer Claire Allen.
Hail, freezing rain, and even some snow at higher elevations reported by ground crews was seen in some areas of the fire according to Allen.
Little or no precipitation, however, is in the forecast for the next 5 days.
“Rain does grant a bit of reprieve but the forest fuels dry out pretty quickly especially when we do have sustained hot and dry weather, as well as some variable winds in the area.”
“Definitely something we will watch out for as things dry up again out there, but ground crews are working as hard as they can with aviation resources and heavy equipment to use this weather to our advantage as long as we have it,” says Allen.
The Elephant Hill Fire is currently estimated at 175,185 hectares in size which is indicative of recent growth several days ago.
332 firefighters with 17 helicopters and 108 pieces of heavy equipment are working on the fire today.