Members of the Cariboo Fire Centre offered their services to the Williams Lake Fire Department Thursday afternoon after a suspected human-caused wildfire broke out on Fox Mountain.
“We never called them,” says WLFD Deputy Fire Chief Rob Warnock.
“It was, I think the contractor up top that was doing the work called them because they had a person there pretty quick before we arrived there and he was assessing the scene and told us that they were going to get planes coming in to lay retardant.”
BC Wildfire Service Chief Fire Information Officer Kevin Skrepnek says that 27 personnel assisted the Department.
“We’ve got over 20 personnel up there right now,” said Skrepnek before 7 pm.
“We did have some air-tankers and helicopters working on it in addition. It sounds like the fire is relatively well in hand at this point about a hectare in size.”
Skrepnek adds that BC Wildfire Service had also sent a response officer to a small grass fire in the Micocene Fire Department/150 Mile Fire Department jurisdiction near Dugan Lake.
“The Fire Department has got that well in hand. So we aren’t assisting in that one,” he says noting that BC Wildfire Service works closely with fire departments across the province.
“Obviously the wildfires don’t pay much attention to where the regional jurisdictional boundaries are so neither do we. I think both these incidents are proof positive that things are working quite well in that space and we’ve got some pretty close coordination there.”
150 Mile Fire Department Chief Stan McCarthy said that the fire had about 15- 20 hotspots.