Chasm wildfire now listed as ‘Under Control’

A fuel-free guard and hose lay has been established around the entire Chasm Wildfire, which is now listed as under control. The fire is listed at 454 hectares in size, and crews are patrolling the fire to ensure there are no hot spots.

Planned ignitions will take place on the Flat Lake, Young Lake, and Big Stick Lake fires today if conditions are optimal. Wildfire Information Officer Madison Smith says when conducting these ignitions, they are looking at wind direction for these optimal conditions.

“We need the wind to be working in our favour,” Smith explains, “We obviously don’t want the wind to be blowing away from the fire, because that would cause our planned ignition to go with the wind. We’re looking at wind directions that are blowing into the fire so that our planned ignitions just burns into the existing fire.”

The Flat Lake Fire is estimated to be 39,584 hectares in size, but Wildfire Information Officer Roslyn Johnson says this doesn’t include activity on the south side of the fire from yesterday. Personnel will be on site assessing, and planning for machine guard options today. Crews are continuing to make progress on securing control lines on the east side of the fire near Highway 97.

Johnson says crews are patrolling the north and west side of the fire South of Canim Lake, and there has been no significant change in those areas of the fire over the past couple of days. However, Johnson says there was some growth to the south.

“We’ll have crews out there working in this area,” Johnson says, “there is the heavy equipment contingency guard established earlier so there is a backup.”

The fire is estimated to be 2,673 hectares.

Due to warmer weather, there was increased fire activity on the McKinley Lake fire. Wildfire Information Officer Madison Smith says ground personnel are working to establish a 25-foot wetline in priority areas along the northern flank, and bucketing operations are helping cool down hotspots. The fire is estimated to be 1,834 hectares in size.

Planned ignitions are continuing on the Young Lake fire, and crews have begun mop-up operations along the east flank where planned ignitions occurred to keep these areas secure. The fire is estimated to be 4,937 hectares.

Sustained wind and warm weather continued to increase fire behaviour on the Big Stick Lake fire yesterday. Hand ignitions were completed on the west flank of the fire, and crews are mopping up and patrolling the edges of the fire. Planned hand ignitions will continue if conditions are optimal. The fire is estimated tobe 7,020 hectares.

As of Thursday, there are 37 active wildfires in the Cariboo Fire Centre, including seven fires of note.

There are seven active fires in the Central Cariboo Fire zone, three in the Chilcotin Zone, six in the Quesnel Zone, and 21 in the 100 Mile Zone.