‘We do expect to pick up additional fires’; Director of BC Wildfire Operations

There are currently 136 active wildfires burning across the province of British Columbia. Of those fires nine are listed as ‘fires of note’ by the service.

Cliff Chapman, Director of BC Wildfire Operations told a new conference today (July 2) that roughly 12,000 lightning strikes hit the province on Thursday and early Friday.

“Many of those strikes were hitting near communities. We had 70 new confirmed fires yesterday mostly focused in the Southern Cariboo, Interior, and Southeast of the province. Of those 70 fires none grew beyond 100 hectares,” said Chapman.

Already on Friday the Wildfire Service is reporting more fires starts due to the weather.

“We do expect to pick up additional fires from the lightning activity yesterday, we already are through today. Likely to see somewhere in that same neighbourhood of 70 fires for today,” stated Chapman.

“And we are anticipating the potential for additional lightning as things lift today heading into the early evening,” added Chapman.

The recent Heat Dome prepped the province to be extremely susceptible to fire starts.

“The forecast for the next 24-48 hours is not likely to bring a lot of relief for the southern half of the province,” said Chapman. “That continues to hamper our firefighting efforts, and lead to significant fire behaviour on our larger fires and challenge our initial attack on the new starts.”

Temperatures are expected to be above seasonal for the next seven days.

More to come